For more than a century, the San Juan River has been analyzed almost exclusively from the perspective of international law
Between 1856 and 1857, during the so-called Transit Campaign, Costa Rica demonstrated – under extreme conditions – that control of the San Juan was equivalent to control of the main inter-oceanic logistical axis of the Western Hemisphere. The capture of nine steamships, the blockade of the Transit Route and the paralyzation of the filibuster logistics were not only a military victory: they were a practical demonstration of functional sovereignty over a global strategic corridor.
This precedent was never again systematically incorporated into the country’s legal, diplomatic and economic strategy.
The strategic gap
Since the late nineteenth century, and with greater intensity during the twentieth century, Costa Rica approached the San Juan almost exclusively as a legal-defensive problem. Subsequent treaties, awards and judgments -Cañas-Jerez, Cleveland, Alexander, The Hague- were negotiated without fully integrating the historical background of effective control of the corridor.
The result has been a strategic vacuum:
a country that possesses proven historical, operational and geopolitical rights, but negotiates as if it lacks them.
Meanwhile, other state and private actors have realized that the interoceanic corridors are not only water channels, but critical geopolitical infrastructure, capable of redefining trade flows, regional alliances and power projection.
The 21st century: new players, same routes
The world that is emerging in the 21st century is once again looking to Central America as a key space for inter-oceanic connections. China, the United States, Europe and private consortiums are evaluating routes, logistical alternatives and regional integration platforms.
In this context, the San Juan reappears as a silent but decisive variable.
It is not necessarily a matter of replicating past models or building unfeasible mega-infrastructures, but of reconstructing a coherent strategic narrative that will allow:
- To revalue the historic corridor of the San Juan.
- Integrating memory, law and geopolitics in the same discourse.
- Present Costa Rica as an actor with historical depth and long-term vision.
- Correct decades of fragmented and reactive negotiation.
Without strategic memory, there is no effective sovereignty.
Without narrative sovereignty, there is no sound negotiation.
The trilogy as a framework for recovery
The trilogy The Waters of Oblivion proposes precisely that journey:
- The Bitter Waters of the San Juan reconstructs the foundational event: the historical demonstration of control of the corridor.
- Silenced Waters exposes how and why this precedent was deliberately excluded from the national and legal narrative.
- The Water Frontier (working title) will analyze how this exclusion has conditioned treaties, awards and lost opportunities… and how it could be reversed in a new global context.
This is not an isolated literary project.
It is a strategic re-reading of the past to reopen future possibilities.
Looking at the river again
Major infrastructure and geopolitical decisions are rarely made from scratch. They rely on precedent, historical legitimacy and long-standing narratives.
Costa Rica has one such narrative – tested, documented and forgotten – in the San Juan River.
Recovering it does not automatically guarantee economic or diplomatic advantages.
But not recovering it guarantees continuing to negotiate from an incomplete position.
In a world where roads once again define power, oblivion is no longer a strategic option.
