Location
Costa Rica, the southernmost of the five
republics that comprise Central America extends approximately from eight
to eleven degrees north latitude and between eighty-three and eighty-six
degrees west longitude.
According to the latitudes mentioned, Costa
Rica is located practically in the center of the inter-tropical zone 10°
north of the equator. This zone is also referred to as the
"Hot Zone", due to its prevailing warm temperatures
throughout. It is also located on the North American Continent, on the
Central American Isthmus. It is six hours west of Greenwich,
Costa Rica's boundaries are natural,
conventional and mixed. On the east and northeast it's bounded by the
Caribbean Sea, and on the west and south by the Pacific Ocean; on the
southeast it borders the country of Panama. Costa Rica is separated from
its northern neighbor, Nicaragua, by natural boundaries: the little Sapoa
River, the southern shore of Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan River, but by
virtue of the Cañas Jerez Treaty signed in 1858, this border was defined
as a line starting from the Caribbean Sea, exactly from the tip of Punta
Castilla at the mouth of the San Juan River; the line continues along the
right bank of the river, upstream, to a point three English miles from
Fort Castillo Viejo; from there it continues west, making an equidistant
curve of a three miles radius from the fort, and then continues two
English miles south of the right bank of the same river; then it continues
two miles south of the shore of Lake Nicaragua until it meets the Sapoa
River. From this point on, it follows an astronomically straight line to
the center of Salinas Bay.
Costa Rica borders with present-day Panama
(which was a province of Colombia until 1903). This border issue went
unresolved for many years, with Costa Rica claiming as part of its
territory the littoral of Chiriqui Lagoon. Later, however, to end the
dispute, Costa Rica and Colombia submitted the matter for French President
Loubet to decide, but he suggested an equivocal border that failed to
resolve the issue. Once Panama was established as a republic, the matter
was submitted to the Chief Justice of the United States, Edward Douglas
White, who presented his verdict on September 12, 1914. It pleased the
Costa Ricans but was not altogether satisfactory to the Panamanians.
In 1941 Panama and Costa Rica arrived at a
border agreement through the Echandi-Montero/Fernandez Jaen Treaty signed
on May 1 of that year. Then the respective legislative bodies of both
countries simultaneously approved a boundary described as: "starting
from the present mouth of the Sixaola at the Caribbean Sea, following
along the lowest part of the river valley upstream to its confluence with
the Yorkin River; from there it follows the lowest part of that river
valley upstream to the parallel at longitude 9°30', north of the equator;
then it continues south 76°3T, west, to the meridian at longitude 82°58'10",
west of Greenwich; from there it continues along this meridian south to
the mountain ridge that separates the waters of the Caribbean Sea from
those of the Pacific; it follows this mountain ridge to Cerro Pando, where
it meets the spur dividing the waters of the tributaries of the Gulf Dulce
and the Charco Azul Bay; from there it follows this spur until it ends at
Punta Burica on the Pacific Ocean." |