It isn’t looking good for Chinese billionaire Wang Jing and his planned $50 billion Nicaragua canal project. New financial, social and environmental concerns have cast doubt on the feasibility of the proposed interoceanic canal, and construction has now been delayed until March.
Nicaragua’s proposed $50 billion interoceanic canal – the biggest earthmoving project in world history – will cut poverty in half, double the country’s GDP growth and energize Central American integration by servicing a boom in global shipping that will quickly outgrow even the newly enlarged Panama Canal. So claims Paul Oquist, a key adviser to President Daniel Ortega.
"What's going to happen if along the [canal] route it will require land expropriation, and how are they [the Sandinista government] going to do it?" U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua Phyllis Powers asked in an interview published Monday in the Nicaraguan news magazine Confidencial. "Because we have U.S. citizens who have property along the route."
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Nicaragua’s political opposition, despite its noisy protests against President Daniel Ortega and his ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) party, has virtually no chance of winning next year’s elections. That’s because Ortega enjoys a 74 percent popularity rating, according to the latest Gallup poll, and because Nicaragua’s feeble opposition isn’t connecting with average voters or raising issues people really care about – like poverty and rising crime.
MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Thousands of demonstrators gathered Saturday in the central Nicaraguan city of Juigalpa to protest the construction of a $50 billion canal that will run through their land.
Organizers of Saturday’s march said they hope to send a message to outside investors that the 373,000 people estimated to be affected by the mega-project will not roll over without a fight.
MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Nicaragua on Friday expelled two human rights activists allegedly without justification as they tried to enter the country, according to the human rights organizations involved, which demanded an explanation.
Since its inception, the road project that parallels the San Juan River and the Nicaraguan border has been a political nightmare. But for all its controversy, the road itself has largely been a mystery to the general public.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Opponents of Nicaragua’s dubious plans to build a $50 billion interoceanic canal are trying to rally U.S. help in fighting the controversial project. But it’s not clear if official Washington is listening.
