The recent announcement of a “cleanup” of the San Juan River, which could actually be a new dredging project, has raised tensions between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, as well as generating concern among environmentalists who claim that the new actions on the tributary lack transparency, since no public report has been presented on these works nor environmental impact studies that support their safety.
Environmentalist Amaru Ruiz, president of the Fundación del Río, in an interview with the program En Contacto, a production of Article 66expressed concern regarding the decisions taken by the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship in previous years regarding dredging in the San Juan River, which earned the country a lawsuit and defeat before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, as well as the payment of a million-dollar compensation to Costa Rica in 2018.
Ruiz denounced the Ortega regime’s policy of concealment with what, in his opinion, would be a new dredging project in the San Juan River and not a cleanup as claimed by the Nicaraguan regime.
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On July 30, dictator Daniel Ortega, while ranting against Costa Rica, revealed what he claims is a “cleanup of the San Juan River,” pointing to the Costa Rican government, which asked him for more information about the work. In the act, he accused the neighboring country of “stealing Guanacaste” and “wanting to steal the San Juan River.”
“Now that General (Óscar) Mojica (Minister of Transport and Infrastructure) announced that a cleanup will be done in the San Juan River, a letter from them (the Government of Costa Rica) has already arrived (arguing) that they had to be taken into account,” Ortega questioned during his speech, stressing that since it is only a cleanup, the work will not have an impact on Costa Rican territory.
In response to Ortega’s statements, the Costa Rican government issued a diplomatic note recognizing Nicaragua’s right to make “improvements” to the San Juan River, stressing that this “is only possible when it does not harm Costa Rica’s territory or affect Costa Rica’s rights.”
Information about the new dredging
Ruiz, who has closely followed the projects that have been developed in Río San Juan and was even in the discussions of the first dredging project that the Ortega government developed there, explained that after the death of Edén Pastora, who was in charge of the first project, the actions on the tributary were taken over by Ricardo Emilio Díaz Palacios, who died during the COVID-19 pandemic and in his place the project was imposed. Olympia Avellaneda Torrez Martinezwho currently leads the Commission for the Development of Río San Juan, which would be in charge of carrying out the new dredging in Río San Juan.
According to the activist, “in the resolution 17-2024 It is established that there is a dredging project for the San Juan River, which even has a RUC number, that is, there is a new dredging project in the area.
Ruiz also revealed that Fundación del Río sent a communication to the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry to obtain more details about the project, specifying that the latter responded “saying that Nicaragua did indeed send a note in which it warned that the actions would be minor, clean-up actions, that they would not imply any risk to Costa Rican territory, and that they would remain on the San Juan River.”
In this context, the environmentalist was skeptical of the official version of the Ortega government and stressed the lack of public information about this alleged cleanup of the San Juan River, which, he stressed, is a new dredging.
«There are several questions here that have not yet been answered. First, if there is a new dredging project, the public is not aware of the new project, what the areas will be, how many kilometers the cleaning or dredging line will be, what the environmental impact studies are for the area, where the resources to finance this come from, who the technicians in charge of this will be, what machinery they will use,» questioned the president of Fundación del Río, an organization that was cancelled and confiscated by the Ortega government.
A dredging, in winter??
He also questioned the timing of the start of operations for what would be this new dredging in the San Juan River, stating that the ideal time would be in the summer and not the current winter season. “The question is why they start in the winter when there is a significant flow and where transporters know the transport channels in the area very well. A cleaning or dredging, which is generally used in the summer when the flow levels decrease, is not justified at this time,” said the specialist.
Ruiz also recalled the logistical and environmental problems of the previous dredging project, led by Edén Pastora, mentioning among these that the extracted materials – according to the initial approach of the project – were stipulated to be located 200 meters from the river flow, despite the fact that they would be easily washed away by the rains that occur in that area and, therefore, returned again to the tributary.
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“The issue of dredging has to do with the increase in sedimentation in the river, so you can do 30 thousand dredgings, but if you have those levels of deforestation in that area, you will maintain those levels of sedimentation that the San Juan River has, especially in the area where it drains into the Caribbean Sea.”
He stated that the San Juan River is extensively militarized and the Nicaraguan Army has also been silent on this new dredging project or the actions they are taking in support of it, highlighting his concern about the lack of transparency of the new dredging, since it is the responsibility of the Government to report on any action it takes, in addition to the probability that there is another “purpose” for which it is being carried out.
“If this is the way the new dredging project is going to be handled, it will leave a lot to be desired and will obviously be a screen for other projects that are under the table and that we have not been able to determine, but which clearly generate a lot of concern,” he stressed.
