The new 445-kilometer canal route that would cross the country from Bluefields, passing through Chontales and Managua, until reaching Corinto, is a delusion of the dictator Daniel Ortega who seeks to sell an illusion to his fans. Furthermore, it is a sign of total surrender to the Chinese empire, to whom it is offering the fantastic project, according to analysts consulted by Article 66.
The dictator Ortega presented, on Monday, November 18, to the Chinese, during a business summit held in Managua, an “alternative” to the Panama Canal, to be built in Nicaragua, according to the tyrant, superior to the Panamanian one and with which he promises to speed up international trade.
The Ortega route, which until now was unknown, as it was not in any of the previous proposals, is much longer than the previous proposal, as it is 445 kilometers long, 27 meters deep and between 290 and 540 meters wide. Although he did not mention the cost of the mega project, since it is longer than the previous one, it could be much more expensive, higher than the 50 billion dollars included in the project with Wang Jing.
Pharaonic delirium
For the economist and former political inmate Juan Sebastián Chamorro, from the board of the Nicaraguan Democratic Concertation (CDN), Ortega’s canal delirium has now led him to propose “a huge ditch” that crosses the country, passing the north of Lake Nicaragua, through Managua until reaching the west.
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According to Chamorro, Ortega would have to draw water from Cocibolca to fill the ditch he proposes.
The economist analyzes that one of the illusions that the tyrant is trying to sell is that he will turn Managua into a “world trade center” connected to the canal and the new airport he plans with China.
Ortega’s project, according to Chamorro, is six times larger than Panama’s, which is only 85 kilometers. «This pharaonic project exceeds the Panama Canal project many times over and even without taking into account the environmental aspects, the damage that would occur to Lake Managua, the relocation of thousands of families, the expropriations of thousands of hectares of land and the effects on different towns where this mega work covers which, as I say, is only in Daniel Ortega’s mentality,” says the economist.
Indeed, the new route proposed by the dictatorship crosses important population centers, over El Rama, Nueva Guinea, Chontales, Boaco, Tipitapa and San Francisco Libre, in Managua, then through La Paz Centro, to Corinto. They are populated areas with private lands.
Illusion for unwary fans, says environmentalist
For the environmentalist and president of the Fundación del Río organization, Amaru Ruiz, the Ortega regime does not talk about the “implications of the resolution of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Court-IDH) but comes out with a presentation of a new route (canalera )».
The environmental defender warned that, of the proposal presented by Ortega, there is no known environmental or technical feasibility study and even less is it known where he will get the resources to carry out the study or to execute such a work.
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For Ruiz, this project presented to the Chinese by the dictator of Nicaragua is something that “is pulled up under his sleeve, to try to continue selling the illusions of a project of that nature.”
For the defender of environmental rights, one of the first questions to ask is “where is Ortega going to get water from if he has not managed the country’s watersheds and forests in a sustainable manner and therefore does not have the capacity to maintain water resources.” “that allow them to maintain the viability of a canal of this nature and along that route that is quite dry and that would take up water (to function)?” asked the director of Fundación del Río.
In that sense, Ruiz analyzes that, given so many elements that make this project seem unrealizable, what remains to be thought is that “what he is trying to sell (Ortega) is an illusion to his followers and trying to obtain fresh financial resources through a scheme that at the time was established to be corrupt and lacking in transparency and seriousness,” concluded the environmentalist.
