Follow the Networks

Abstract

On February 27, 1994, three Costa Rican engineers took an afternoon flight from San José to Managua, Nicaragua. The timing for this trip was good in more ways than one. Little by little, more than a decade of war in the region was coming to an end. The trip had a single purpose: participate in Nicaragua’s connection to the Internet. In Managua, a group of collaborators who had worked for months to establish this link awaited them. For almost three years, they had been making plans together for Nicaragua’s Internet connection through Costa Rica via an analog microwave link built in the late 60s, a decade in which the concept of Central American integration had flourished. From Costa Rica, Nicaragua would be connected to Homestead, Florida through a satellite antenna. This goal was achieved the very next day and was celebrated enthusiastically. A public event was held at the Nicaraguan university that led this initiative. After a series of training and work sessions with their Nicaraguan counterparts, the Costa Rican engineers returned to San José on March 2. Only four months later, they would repeat this process in a different setting: the new site was Panama, but the purpose and procedures were almost identical.