{"id":548,"date":"2025-12-02T15:15:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T15:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aguasamargas.com\/the-water-border\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T16:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:25:08","slug":"the-water-border","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/aguasamargas.com\/en\/the-water-border\/","title":{"rendered":"THE WATER BORDER"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/highlight><\/highlight>History, sovereignty, and memory: from the San Juan of the 19th century to The Hague of the 21st century<\/em>(Third book of The Waters of Oblivion Trilogy)<\/em><\/p>\n\n

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<\/strong>. From the Ca\u00f1as\u2013Jerez Treaty (1858)<\/strong> to the recent disputes before the International Court of Justice in The Hague (2005\u20132018)<\/strong>, the country has defended its rights with historical, cartographic, legal, and environmental arguments. <\/p>\n\n

But in all those cases\u2014without exception\u2014Costa Rica presented its defense without mentioning the Transit Campaign (1856\u20131857)<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n

It is as if, in the 21st century, Costa Rican diplomacy had litigated with a void of memory<\/strong>: as if the country had voluntarily renounced one of its most decisive military episodes, leaving a narrative gap that weakened\u2014unnecessarily\u2014the historical depth of its position.<\/p>\n\n

The Water Border<\/strong> explores that void.<\/p>\n\n

This book answers three essential questions:<\/p>\n\n

1. Why did Costa Rica never use the Transit Campaign in its international litigation?<\/strong>The investigation shows that the silencing began in the 19th century, when the figure of M\u00e1ximo Blanco Rodr\u00edguez<\/strong> 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 \u201cpeaceful\u201d nation, erasing\u2014intentionally or not\u2014all traces of victorious military memory. <\/p>\n\n

The book closes the trilogy with a forceful statement:Memory is not the past; it is sovereignty.<\/strong><\/highlight><\/p>\n\n

2. How would the Costa Rican defense have changed if it had incorporated its river victory?<\/strong>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. <\/p>\n\n

<\/highlight>3. \u00bfQu\u00e9 oportunidades tiene Costa Rica para recuperar su narrativa, su historia y su posici\u00f3n geopol\u00edtica?<\/strong>El libro propone una reconstrucci\u00f3n moderna del valor estrat\u00e9gico del r\u00edo en el siglo XXI: rutas log\u00edsticas, puertos secos, corredores interoce\u00e1nicos, hidroestrategia y diplomacia de recursos h\u00eddricos. Sugiere que la memoria hist\u00f3rica \u2014lejos de ser un lujo acad\u00e9mico\u2014 es una herramienta de poder que Costa Rica a\u00fan no ha utilizado y que posiblemente la lleve a una necesidad de reconducirse<\/highlight> a la <\/a><\/a><\/a>Tercera Rep\u00fablica<\/strong><\/a><\/highlight><\/a><\/highlight>.<\/p>\n\n

The Water Border<\/strong> 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<\/highlight>es that can still be recovered if the country decides to look its history in the face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

History, sovereignty, and memory: from the San Juan of the 19th century to The Hague of the 21st century(Third book of The Waters of Oblivion Trilogy) For more than a century and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":550,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-548","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nTHE WATER BORDER - Las Aguas Amargas del San Juan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aguasamargas.com\/en\/the-water-border\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"THE WATER BORDER\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"History, sovereignty, and memory: from the San Juan of the 19th century to The Hague of the 21st century(Third book of The Waters of Oblivion Trilogy) For more than a century and...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/aguasamargas.com\/en\/the-water-border\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Las Aguas Amargas del San Juan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-06T16:25:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aguasamargas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LIBROS-SIGLO-XX.jpg?fit=1536%2C820&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"820\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Tiempo de lectura\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutos\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/aguasamargas.com\\\/en\\\/the-water-border\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/aguasamargas.com\\\/en\\\/the-water-border\\\/\",\"name\":\"THE WATER BORDER - 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