Who controls Calero Island?

Tensions between the neighboring countries of Costa Rica and Nicaragua continue to be high over the sovereignty of a disputed territory known as the Calero Island. Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General José Miguel Insulza insisted that both countries seek a peaceful resolution through dialogue but it doesn’t look like that will occur any time soon.

Yesterday Costa Rica 's foreign ministry filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Nicaraguan troops invaded Costa Rican territory and this "threatens imminent and irreparable harm" to Costa Rica according to the case filed with the U.N.’s highest court. The suit requests that the ICJ halt Nicaraguan plans to build “a canal on Costa Rican soil” and also claimed that environmental damage is occurring due to a Nicaraguan “dredging project” along the San Juan River.

Nicaraguan officials denied that their troops invaded Costa Rican territory and instead alleged that the Calero Island sits on the Nicaraguan side of the border. Nicaraguan Ambassador to the OAS Denis Moncada said that his country will also file suit at the ICJ and that the OAS has “no jurisdiction” over the matter. The OAS previously urged that Nicaraguan troops leave the disputed area yet President Daniel Ortega said that the troops would stay on the island “indefinitely.”

The border dispute is best known over claims that Nicaragua occupied Calero Island due to a glitch in Google Maps. But an article in the New York Times insinuated that Nicaraguan soldiers deliberately crossed the border in order to encourage nationalist support for Ortega. The article also linked to a Tico Times interview with Ortega where he said that the controversial dredging operation is legal via a previous ICJ decision on the San Juan River.

Blogger Kevin Alvarez expressed his disgust over the “pissing contest” between Ortega and his Costa Rican counterpart Laura Chinchilla over Calero Island. Though he places most of the blame on Ortega, he also points the finger at Chinchilla for seeking "quick political capital":

Gaining sovereignty over Isla Calero will not solve Costa Rica or Nicaragua’s problems. It will rile Central American against Central American and reignite distrust between these two neighbors. Not only will this not alleviate poverty, reduce corruption (it might increase), or make one nation stronger than the other but it will prolong the hostility in Latin America over lines in sand/water/earth drawn by colonial conquerors and liberators long ago.

Image- Google Earth via The Guardian (“Google Earth shows the stretch of land at the center of the Central American dispute.”)
Online Sources- El Sueno de Bolivar, Americas Quarterly, CNN, LAHT, Tico Times, New York Times

Daily Headlines: November 8, 2010

* Central America: Nicaraguan officials criticized Google Maps for erroneous data that led to an accidental incursion into Costa Rica while a Google spokesman blamed the U.S. State Department.

* South America: On a similar note, Argentina’s Foreign Minister said that a Bolivian coronel is to blame for “a long-standing series of incidents” in the border area between both countries.

* Cuba: Dissident groups such as the Ladies in White are upset that the government has yet to release 13 of the 52 political prisoners pledged to be freed by yesterday.

* Peru: Lori Berenson could leave prison today after having been granted parole by a Peruvian judge on Friday.

Image – El Informador (Costa Rican police conduct a patrol near the border with Nicaragua. Courtesy EFE).
Online Sources- Sydney Morning Herald, Buenos Aires Herald, BBC News, The Latin Americanist, LAHT

“America” is Brazil?

All too often, the term “America” has been used to designate the United States; the song “God Bless America” is a famous patriotic tune applied to the U.S., for instance.

Yet a map that has been reportedly the earliest one to use “America” placed that name not in the U.S. or even north of the Equator.

Would you believe Brazil?

One of the main sources for his new work was the knowledge brought to Europe by the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

The word America - said by many scholars to be derived from the explorer's name - appears however not where the modern US is but where Brazil now is.

That was the region Vespucci had begun to explore.

The 500-year-old Waldseemueller map will be displayed by the Library of Congress who purchased the piece for $10 million in 2003. The map is stunning not only in that it has been so well preserved but also since it’s “80 percent correct” according to the head of the geography and map division at the Library of Congress.

Image- National Geographic

Sources- Wikipedia, BBC News, The Moscow Times, AFP