Old Ambitions, New Ambitions - The Nicaraguan Canal

My trip to the Panama Canal Zone, 2009

In the 1500s, Spanish conquistadors were well aware of the value of a canal across the isthmus-like features of Central of America; by 1853, the idea of a canal linking the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean via Central America was already alive and breathing. An attempt had already been made over twenty years earlier to build such a structure via Lake Nicaragua, and in 1849 a deal had been made by the nascent country of Nicaragua to make a second attempt over the next twenty-five years. A land transit route was made, and the US government was surveying Nicaraguan geography in preparation for the water route by the 1870s.

However, throughout the 1800s Nicaragua was politically unstable, being disunited by geography and loyalties, as well as torn apart by the pull of colonial powers and businesses. It's president in the 1850s--William Walker--was an American who sought to develop and exploit Nicaragua's resources, while part of the Atlantic coast was claimed by the British Empire and wasn't ceded until nearer to the end of the century. By 1900, Nicaragua had some semblance of unity under President Jose Santos Zelaya--but within a decade rebellion was in full swing, with American military backing. Interest in a canal across Nicaragua, linking into Lake Nicaragua, seemed geographically feasible, but the division of the country and the strife that such divisions manifested left the idea beyond reality. Meanwhile, the United States took over French construction on the Panama Canal in 1904, and one thousand ships passed through it by the end of 1914.

The prosperity brought by the Panama Canal seemed to signal a victory for the US, an end to the race for Caribbean economic hegemony and domination of maritime trade between the two hemispheres. History unfolds in surprising ways, as always, and looking back from 2014 to 1914 we see that Panama itself was ridden with strife, dictatorship, and eventually became independent of the United States and took control of its own canal and the political power it carries. The Panama Canal exists today as a neutral zone guaranteed by the American-Panamanian treaty of 1977, but neutrality is a benefit to some and a boon to others.

From the Toronto Star, September 2013

A monopoly on the convenient maritime transit between the Atlantic and the Pacific is enough on its own to birth competition--for Colombia, to the south, it is a rail route running east to west, and for Nicaragua it is the resurrection of its own canal ambitions. While Panama is seeking a $5 billion expansion of its 33.5 meter wide canal to better accommodate traffic, Nicaragua has a private Chinese investor looking to begin a $40 billion project in 2014 to build a more direct, deeper, and wider canal that has the potential to blow the Panama Canal out of the water, so to speak.

The Nicaraguan government has given the Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company (HKND) a 50 year contract for the project, with ports, railways, an oil pipeline, and airports as part of the planned development. Chinese entrepreneur Wang Jing is the man behind the project, and is prepared to face the challenge of the canal's development. Many of the challenges are unique to the 21st Century--environmental lobbies, American opposition to Chinese competition, and the diplomatic climate within Latin America. These sit beside the concept of American hegemony in general in the Caribbean region, as well as the threat of hurricanes an earthquakes along the proposed Nicaraguan route. However, the proposal is an attractive one to investors and clients alike, as it allows for transit of much larger modern ships, with an 800km reduction in travel distance between New York and California by ship, as opposed to the Panamanian route.

Several of the proposed routes, with the river systems on the east side and Rivas on the western isthmus near Brito

Cutting across around 190km of Nicaragua's land, joining with rivers, then cutting through the isthmus at Rivas on the Pacific side of the country, this canal would do more than just change the landscape of Panama. Most Nicaraguans are supportive of the plan, realizing that it would bring the potential for vast economic growth and advancement to the Western Hemisphere's second poorest country. The investment required for the project is more than three times the size of Nicaragua's GDP as it stands, and would lift the country out of poverty and leave it as one of the wealthiest--rather than almost the poorest--of all its neighbors.

"This canal has been talked about for hundreds of years ... Spain wanted to build it five hundred years ago, but then the Panama Canal was built a hundred years ago. This time, in the 21st century, it was me who took the initiative," said Wang Jing in 2013. Nicaraguan President Manuel Ortega approved the project, and the Nicaraguan courts have affirmed its constitutionality--with construction planned for late 2014, the success of the project lies no longer in a gauge of its feasibility, but now in a the measure of its progress in coming years.