Google gets geography lesson from Chileans

Stan Beer
Monday, 30 April 2007 16:36

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Some nations can be a touchy lot about the integrity of their borders. In the case of the hot blooded Latin Americans it is probably not a good idea to assign an entire village to a neighboring country because it may land you in hot water as happened to Google in Chile.

The Government of Chile wants Google to rectify a mistake in its Google Earth program, which placed a small southern Chilean village near the border with Argentina, on the Argentinian side.

The village, called Villa O'Higgins, was founded 40 years ago by Chilean settlers and was named after the 19th century military Governor of Chile, Bernardo O'Higgins. It can be reached via the unpaved Austral Highway that runs 1000 km North to South within Chile starting from Chaiten and ending at Villa O'Higgins.

Relations between Chile and Argentina have at times been tenuous and the countries have had border disputes in the not too distant past near the very region where Google got it wrong.

In 1978, both South American nations nearly went to war over the possession of three islands and maritime rights in the Beagle Channel at the southern tip of the South American continent. It took the intervention of Pope John Paul II to defuse the stand-off between the two respective navies.

Google has promised the Chileans that it will make things right as soon as it figures out the complicated geography of the region.