The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, offered a group of Chinese businessmen an old interoceanic canal project through the Central American country, with a new route through Lake Xolotlán, located next to the capital.
Ortega was the host of the XVII China-Latin America and the Caribbean Business Summit, inaugurated on Monday in Managua and in which 250 Chinese and 70 Latin American businessmen participated.
In a speech, the president stated the day before that the Panama Canal, the only maritime crossing through the Central American isthmus, has fluidity problems and assured that Nicaragua’s alternative is based “on studies that have been done for a long time.” time”.
The president was referring to the failed interoceanic canal project announced in 2013 together with Chinese businessman Wang Jing, an initiative for which an investment of around $50 billion was expected.
The new plan would have a longer route than the previous one (445 kilometers), it would start from the South Caribbean city of Bluefields, cross the territory across Lake Xolotlán, and end at the Corinto port (west), as he explained.
Ortega’s offer occurs one day after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IAC Court) issued a ruling that forces Nicaragua to compensate the indigenous peoples of the South Caribbean area of the country for up to $1.5 million, “for “material and immaterial damages” suffered as a result of that initiative.
The Inter-American Court found Nicaragua “internationally responsible” for violating the rights of nine indigenous communities that make up the Rama and Kriol peoples, over whom it “exerted undue interference in the designation of authorities” to approve the construction of the canal.
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