Activists renew calls for controversial US$50 billion Nicaragua Canal project to be cancelled as Chinese tycoon’s cash runs dry
- A deal signed between the Nicaraguan government and HKND Group includes a clause which would allow parts of the project to be cancelled this year
- But human rights advocates worry President Daniel Ortega’s administration may still push for the project, which aims to rival the Panama Canal
After sealing a US$50 billion deal for an ambitious canal to be built in Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega and Chinese billionaire Wang Jing posed triumphantly in front of cameras on June 14, 2013.
Wang’s Hong Kong-based HKND Group had been granted a concession to build and operate the Nicaragua Canal for 50 years – with the option of a further 50-year extension.
The firm had a grand vision for the new waterway: it would be twice as deep and three times longer than the famous 82km Panama Canal, which has operated for over a century, and it would see vessels packed with goods as high as Hong Kong’s skyscrapers sailing through it.
The megaproject, which was expected to be completed by this year, would also include an airport, a pipeline, two ports and a free-trade zone.
But the plans were quickly met with scepticism by local farmers, indigenous groups, human rights advocates and environmentalists in Nicaragua, who feared the impact of such a major project, as observers and experts raised doubts about its feasibility.
Six years on and dozens of protests later, activists are renewing calls for the project to be cancelled for good, and for the law that allows its construction to be repealed.
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