Google has admitted to the boundary error that caused a dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The search giant says the United States government is to blame for the inaccurate data.
"[A]fter a discussion with the data supplier for this particular border (the US Department of State), we determined that there was indeed an error in the compilation of the source data, by up to 2.7 kilometers," the company said in a statement. "The US Department of State has provided a corrected version and we are now working to update our maps." Google also goes on to give a little history of the region, but the real good news here is that the company is fixing the issue.
Earlier this week, we reported that former Nicaraguan military commander Eden Pastora blamed Google Maps for ordering his army to invade a portion of Costa Rica. The troops set up camp, took down a Costa Rican flag, raised the Nicaraguan flag, destroyed a protected forest, cleaned up a nearby river, and dumped the sediment in Costa Rican territory.
Like Bing Maps, the official maps used by both the Nicaraguan and Costa Rican governments show the border continuing on the right bank of the San Juan River all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Soon, Google Maps will do the same.