(Third book of The Waters of Oblivion Trilogy)
For more than a century and a half, Costa Rica has waged diplomatic, legal, and geopolitical battles for the control, use, and narrative of the San Juan River. From the Cañas–Jerez Treaty (1858) to the recent disputes before the International Court of Justice in The Hague (2005–2018), the country has defended its rights with historical, cartographic, legal, and environmental arguments.
But in all those cases—without exception—Costa Rica presented its defense without mentioning the Transit Campaign (1856–1857) or the river operation that absolutely defined the territorial and geopolitical reality of the region: the Costa Rican capture of the river, of the interoceanic steamboats, and of the corridor that connected the Atlantic with the Pacific.
Neither the allegations before Cleveland in 1887,
nor the claim of sovereignty over Isla Calero,
nor the dispute over the dredging of the San Juan,
nor the processes for invasion, environmental damage, or militarization of the river,
made any reference to the most strategic military campaign in Central American history.
It is as if, in the 21st century, Costa Rican diplomacy had litigated with a void of memory: as if the country had voluntarily renounced one of its most decisive military episodes, leaving a narrative gap that weakened—unnecessarily—the historical depth of its position.
The Water Border explores that void.
This book answers three essential questions:
1. Why did Costa Rica never use the Transit Campaign in its international litigation?
The investigation shows that the silencing began in the 19th century, when the figure of Máximo Blanco Rodríguez was uncomfortable for the political elite that ascended after the fall of Mora. The silence continued in the 20th century, with a Second Republic that rewrote the country’s identity as a “peaceful” nation, erasing—intentionally or not—all traces of victorious military memory.
The book closes the trilogy with a forceful statement:
Memory is not the past; it is sovereignty.
2. How would the Costa Rican defense have changed if it had incorporated its river victory?
Reconstructing files, maps, diplomatic notes, and judgments, the book argues in a documented manner that Costa Rica litigated for 150 years without using one of its most compelling pieces of evidence: the effective possession of the river through the capture of the Transit Route and the steamboats that made it work. It was a strategic omission that left interpretive spaces exploited by Nicaragua.
3. What opportunities does Costa Rica have to recover its narrative, its history, and its geopolitical position?
The book proposes a modern reconstruction of the strategic value of the river in the 21st century: logistics routes, dry ports, interoceanic corridors, hydrostrategy, and diplomacy of water resources. It suggests that historical memory—far from being an academic luxury—is a tool of power that Costa Rica has not yet used.
The Water Border is a journey through the great legal disputes, the mobile borders of the San Juan, international arbitrations, forgotten negotiations, lost maps, inherited silences… and the opportuniti
