Nicaragua 'Accidentally' Invades Costa Rica, Blames Google Maps

The Nicaraguan government is blaming Google for almost sparking an international incident earlier this week.

After Nicaraguan troops accidentally crossed over into Costa Rican territory -- a hotly contested border region -- the government's Deputy Foreign Minister, Carlos Roverssi, said the Google software had a "bug" and the Central American country "sent a note to the company to rectify the map."

The local Nicaraguan paper reports (translated from Spanish):

Roverssi complained that the map in the direction www.googlemaps.com, the border between the two countries is different from official documents.

For his part, Ambassador of Nicaragua to the Organization of American States (OAS), Dennis Moncada, said yesterday in Washington on the subject: "Look this is a technical element mapping that can be confusing. Yo refiero no opinar sobre esa situación de los mapas porque pueden tender a confundir”. I refer not to comment on the situation of the maps because they tend to confuse."

In the end, it turns out Google's error was actually caused by incorrect border data supplied by the U.S. State Department.  (h/t Gawker)