1000s of Nicaraguans protest controversial canal project
Thousands of Nicaraguans have staged a protest rally in a central city to voice their anger at a government decision to give the go-ahead to the controversial construction of a canal through their lands.
On Saturday, around 15,000 protesters, mainly farmers whose lands lies on the waterway’s planned route, gathered from across the country in the central Nicaraguan city of Juigalpa.
The demonstrators shouted “No to the canal,” waving Nicaragua’s national flags during the rally.
The ground was broken last December on the construction site of the Nicaragua's Interoceanic Grand Canal, which is aimed at furrowing a transportation passageway between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean. However, the digging will not begin until 2016.
The Managua government has awarded the massive canal project, worth USD 50 billion (44 billion euros), to Chinese firm Hong Kong Nicaragua Development (HKND).
The waterway, which is scheduled for completion in 2019, is expected to rival the Panama Canal farther south. It crosses Lake Nicaragua and runs through some 40 villages.
Farmers and native peoples living on the canal’s route, however, oppose the project, arguing that it will disrupt life along a 280-kilometer (175-mile)-long corridor.
The project is expected to displace some 30,000 people.
HN/MKA/SS
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