THE HAGUE (ICJ Press Release) — During the public hearings due to open on Tuesday 14 April 2015 at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, experts have been called by the Parties in the joined cases concerning Certain Activities carried out by Nicaragua in the Border Area (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua) and the Construction of a Road in Costa Rica along the San Juan River (Nicaragua v. Costa Rica).

These experts were examined during the sessions on Tuesday 14 April, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m and Friday 17 April 2015 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The examination will resume on Monday 20 April 2015 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday 24 April, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and, if necessary, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The matters in dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua were precipitated by a 2010 incident known as the “Google Maps Invasion.” As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star:

One of the most bizarre military invasions in modern history was blamed on Google Maps. It was spearheaded by controversial Nicaraguan revolutionary Edén Pastora, who somehow got a job as supervisor of a dredging operation in the San Juan River. The invasion was initially characterized as accidental after Pastora confessed to La Nación that he was leading a Nicaraguan infantry squad using Google Maps.

It turned out that Google Maps was wrong, and Google promptly acknowledged and corrected its mistake. That invasion prompted an interesting debate among online cartographers who determined that the Nicaraguan army would have been better off using Bing Maps. Pastora’s blunder lead to concerns about how a nation’s security forces could depend on Google Maps to conduct military operations.

President Laura Chinchilla was not amused by the Google Maps invasion, which is one of the many reasons why the border dispute is currently on the docket of the ICJ at the Hague.

The reaction by the Chinchilla administration is also part of this sovereign border matter. As reported by this publication in 2012:

President Laura Chinchilla has received both criticism and accolades for her decision to charge forward with the construction of a new highway that runs parallel to the San Juan river in Nicaragua. The highway, which is named after former head of state and national hero Juan Rafael Mora Porras, has been the subject of intense debate between public officials of both Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

Many Ticos view the highway as a strong exercise of sovereignty after the strange invasion undertaken by former guerrilla leader Eden Pastora and a Nicaraguan Army squad back in 2010. The road comes dangerously close to the river’s edge at some spots, something that Nicaraguan officials claim will eventually cause environmental damage to the river.