What's Really Going on with the Nicaragua Canal?
5 January 2015 | By Rod Sweet
True to his word, Chinese businessman Wang Jing showed up in Nicaragua on 22 December to mark the start of construction on the canal that will link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and give the Western Hemisphere’s second poorest country an economic turbo charge – or so its promoters promise.
But the event was marred by violence as police broke up protests led by those living along the 276-km canal route who fear their land will be taken without adequate compensation.
And questions were raised again about how exactly the gigantic scheme, which the Nicaraguan government assumes will cost no less than $40bn, would be funded. Observers have concluded that it will be bankrolled by the Chinese state.
“Approximately 400,000 hectares of rainforest and wetland will be destroyed”– Nature journal
Scientists and environmental groups have also made fresh demands for a transparent environmental impact assessment. Chief among their concerns is a plan to dredge a deep channel through Lake Nicaragua (Cocibolca), Central America’s largest lake. They worry this will cause an environmental disaster.
Arrests
Anyone hoping to see excavators getting stuck in to the vast ditch on 22 December will have been disappointed.
What broke ground that day was not the grand canal, a century-old dream for some Nicaraguans, but rather the start of renovations to an access road to a proposed to port and set of locks near Rivas, at the western shore of Lake Nicaragua.
The cautious start didn’t dampen the hyperbole of Wang Jing, owner of Hong-Kong-based company HKND, which, in June 2013, got vast powers to expropriate land to build and operate the canal.
“The Grand Canal of Nicaragua will be a great contribution to their [sic] wealth of Nicaragua people and to the development of the humanity,” he told the hand-picked audience of Nicaraguan officials and cheering HKND employees in the capital, Managua, later that day (pictured).
He also vowed that the Chinese companies building the canal would respect the rights of the Nicaraguan people. “Without the consent of the owners, or the satisfaction with the compensation, not a single plant on their land will be touched,” he said, according to the text of his speech on HKND’s website.
Angry “campesinos”, subsistence farmers whose homes and land lie along the canal’s proposed route, were not reassured. They have been complaining of Chinese surveyors turning up under the protection of Nicaraguan soldiers, taking measurements, and leaving without a word. They say they have had no information yet about compensation even though construction has now started.
While Wang was giving his speech, protestors in Rivas blocked the Pan-American Highway. Another group blocked the Managua-San Carlos Highway.
On the evening of 23 December riot police moved in on the barricade at Rivas where 40 were arrested, according to the Nicaraguan daily newspaper La Prensa. The second roadblock was cleared with force on the following day, Christmas Eve.
Six protest leaders were held without charge for six days, contrary to Nicaraguan law. Among those released on 30 December was Octavio Ortega, president of the Fundemur NGO (no relation to Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega), who claims that he was badly beaten while in custody.
REST OF THE ARTICLE:
http://www.globalconreview.com/perspectives/whats-really-going-n8i0ca0r8a8g8u8a-c4an4al/
Replies
There is a left wing NGO in Washington DC that writes about Nicaragua. They are Nica Net dot org. They are never critical of Ortega. Ortega is well known for taking his cut of any big deal. His son is an employee of the Chinese company. NICA NET wrote in one of there articles that the Chinese plan to hire about 15,000 Nicaraguans and bring in another 15,000 Chinese workers. I do not think the canal will ever be completed. I think Ortega will milk this for all it is worth just as he did the Venezuela money from Chavez.
The Pellas Family is a very, very wealthy family in Nicaragua. They are in the billionaire class and have their hands in just about anything worthwhile. They survive no matter which political party controls Nicaragua. You would think their name would pop up on this deal if it was a worthwhile project.
I neighbor of mine visited Nicaragua over Christmas. He said that on Omepete Island the people learned the symbol for "Get Out" in Chinese. They painted it on their houses. They also painted "!Fuera!" (Out) on their houses.
Yes, Aleman made off with between $30 & $40 million of funds donated for Mitch relief. Bolanos, another president, put all his extended family on the federal payroll. Worth about $3 million a year.
According to this article in LaPrensa of Nicaragua, a group of 24 organizations have asked CELAC, the Council of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, to include the impacts of the proposed Nicaraguan Canal on their agenda when the heads of state meet in Costa Rica later this week.
Un grupo de 24 organizaciones nicaragüenses pidieron este martes a la Cumbre de la Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños (CELAC), que se celebra en Costa Rica, incluir en su agenda el tema del proyectado canal en Nicaragua, que calificaron como una “entrega de soberanía”.
Organizaciones de defensa de los derechos humanos, ambientalistas y políticas pretenden entregar una carta dirigida a los 33 gobernantes del bloque, que se reúne el miércoles 28 y el jueves 29 de enero en San José, en la que alertan sobre un posible “grave impacto social y ambiental” del proyecto.
“Queremos que los presidentes se den cuenta de las irregularidades que el gobierno de Nicaragua ha cometido, violentando la Constitución Política en más de 42 artículos del contrato”, dijo a la AFP Octavio Ortega, uno de los dirigentes del movimiento de oposición al canal interoceánico.
“No nos oponemos al desarrollo de obras que puedan impulsar el progreso del país, pero lo que ocurre es que no hay un estudio serio de impacto ambiental ni de viabilidad económica”, afirmó el dirigente.
El canciller costarricense, Manuel González, dijo a la AFP que, aunque el documento pueda llegar a su despacho y lo encauzaría de manera apropiada, no ve viable que los firmantes de la carta puedan entregarla a los gobernantes en el marco de la reunión.
“No porque no los queramos recibir, sino por los estrictos dispositivos de seguridad que estamos obligados a garantizar a las delegaciones. Además no veo que sea un tema de discusión en la CELAC en este momento”, indicó el canciller.
La carta, distribuida a la prensa, señala que el contrato firmado por el gobierno de Nicaragua con una compañía de Hong Kong para la construcción del canal entrega los recursos naturales más valiosos del país, así como “la soberanía administrativa, judicial, laboral, fiscal y financiera, incluyendo las reservas del Banco Central, al ser otorgadas como garantía”.
Adicionalmente, “otorga al concesionario el derecho de confiscar propiedades de particulares en cualquier lugar del territorio nacional, incluyendo las de régimen comunitario, y a su propio arbitrio, pagándolas a precio de catastro o comercial”, subrayó.
“Especial preocupación es la degradación ecológica de los ecosistemas y de los recursos acuíferos, en particular los del Gran Lago de Nicaragua (Cocibolca), el mayor reservorio de agua dulce de la región centroamericana”, agrega el documento.
Octavio Ortega afirmó que se han realizado 19 marchas de protesta en Nicaragua, que han sido “salvajemente reprimidas” por el gobierno de Daniel Ortega.
“Queremos evitar un derramamiento de sangre en Nicaragua”, aseguró, por lo que pidió “sensatez” al mandatario de su país. “Que nos sentemos y dialoguemos”, concluyó.
It makes no sense at all as a private investment (which Wang purports it to be). It would take a generation or more to recoup the $40 billion, and far longer than that to generate a reasonable rate of return.
So, either it's a scam to raise money but never seriously undertake the project, or this is a front for the Chinese government to strategically expand its power and influence in the hemisphere.
I personally don't see what China would get out of that to justify making such a stupid and controversial investment. No real environmental organization could support a canal through Lake Nicaragua.
I think Daniel Ortega made a deal with a con man. He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Or maybe he's enjoying the bribes knowing full well this canal will never happen, in which case he's smarter than I think.
My guess is Ortega and company likely know it will never happen, but they will milk as much new employment and infrastructure as they can out of it first. By the way, I'm not sure how corrupt Ortega is, but I do know that the propped-up pig that replaced him after the Contra go-round, Arnoldo Aleman, was a blatant thief.