An embarrassing error on Google Maps has been blamed for Nicaragua's accidental invasion of Costa Rica. Nicaraguan troops crossed the border, took down a Costa Rican flag, and defiantly raised their flag on Costa Rican turf.
But the troops' commander, Eden Pastora, told a Costa Rican newspaper, La Nacion, that his invasion was not his fault because Google Maps mistakenly said the territory belonged to Nicaragua. Government officials in Nicaragua have also blamed a "bug in Google" for the error.
The Organization of the American States and UN Security Council were called in to mediate the dispute and find a solution to the problem caused by Google. "Costa Rica is seeing its dignity smeared, and there is a sense of great national urgency," said Costa Rica's excellently-named President Laura Chinchilla.
The search giant has owned up and admitted to its mistake, saying that an error, by up to 2.7 kilometers, arose in the compilation of the border source data with the US Department of State.