For nearly two centuries, Nicaragua and Costa Rica have waged a long-running diplomatic battle over navigational and territorial rights along the San Juan River, a Nicaraguan waterway that traces most of their shared border. Now, Costa Rica is opening a new chapter in the dispute by building a 160-kilometer (100-mile) highway along the San Juan’s southern bank. Costa Rica justifies the project on trade and national-security grounds, portraying it as a necessary response to territorial overstepping by Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. “The objective [of the highway] is to allow the Republic of Costa Rica the full exercise of its sovereignty in the border zone to protect its territorial integrity and repel any hostile actions against the nation,” reads a Dec. 14 letter... [Log in to read more]