“Why Wang Jing? I really don’t know, but I would guess that no one else was willing to fund a project of this sort,” says Margaret Myers, director of the China and Latin America program at the Inter-American Dialogue. Myers says Wang is rumored to have government connections, but so far there is no indication that the Chinese government is interested in the project. “I haven’t seen the project referenced at all in Chinese official or social media,” she says. Money isn’t the only concern. Environmentalists — including Ortega’s top environmental adviser — warn that the project could have disastrous consequences for the country’s water supply, including the massive Lake Nicaragua, considered a key source of drinking water for Central America in decades to come. Meanwhile, José Adan Aguerri, president of Nicaragua’s largest business chamber, warns that private-property owners will be “defenseless” against expropriations by the canal project. Until the canal’s route is established, everyone owning property in the indeterminately large canal zone that’s been penciled across the middle of the country is at risk of being expropriated — a legal uncertainty that may bring an instant chill to Nicaragua’s investment climate. Civil-society groups also worry that Ortega’s Sandinista politburo and their new Chinese business partners intend to essentially create a privatized enclave in the middle of Nicaragua — one that will be governed for the next 50 to 100 years by their self-styled Canal Commission, regardless of which government is in power in Managua. Civil-society groups also worry that Ortega’s Sandinista politburo and their new Chinese business partners intend to essentially create a privatized enclave in the middle of Nicaragua — one that will be governed for the next 50 to 100 years by their self-styled Canal Commission, regardless of which government is in power in Managua. Civil-society groups also worry that Ortega’s Sandinista politburo and their new Chinese business partners intend to essentially create a privatized enclave in the middle of Nicaragua — one that will be governed for the next 50 to 100 years by their self-styled Canal Commission, regardless of which government is in power in Managua. world.time/2013/06/13/nicaraguas-chinese-canal-behind-the-audacious-40-billion-bid-to-build-a-rival-panama-canal/
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 07:14:16 +0000
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