Famed poet, priest, politician calls Nicaraguan Canal a “monstrosity”

(Photo by Patty Mooney / CC)

November 3^rd, 2014 (InsideCostaRica.com) The famed Nicaraguan priest, poet and politician, Ernesto Cardenal, described the Nicaraguan Grand Canal, set to break ground in December, as a “monstrosity” in a column published over the weekend in Nicaragua’s La Prensa newspaper.

Cardenal accuses President Daniel Ortega of having imposed the project on the country through the use of his “absolute power,” without consulting with the population.

“President Daniel Ortega, using the absolute power that he and his wife have over the country, saw that Congress approved in just a single day a law for the construction of the Interoceanic Canal.  The day after the law was passed a concession was granted with dizzying speed, even though it will affect Nicaragua for over a hundred years, and the award was granted to a previously unknown Chinese man named Wang Jing.  The concession only grants rights to Wang Jing without imposing any obligations,” Cardenal said.

“The concession was made without any previous study as even President Ortega has said himself.”

Cardenal criticized the fact that “the concession requires that all information about the construction of the Canal to remain confidential” and was awarded without bidding.

Cardenal further claims that Wang Jing and his company, HKND, have been given the right to carry out the works anywhere and in anyway they see fit.

“[Wang Jing] has every license, permit, or authorization that he demands,” Cardenal said.  “Under the agreement, [HKND] is beyond national law, free of any administrative, civil or criminal liability, even if it fails to meet its obligations.”

“The law is contradictory to many aspects of our Constitution,” Cardenal said.

In return, Cardenal says, “the State of Nicaragua will not receive a single penny in taxes or fees” as a result of the works.  “Many experts say that Nicaragua would earn more by selling drinking water over the next one hundred years [until Nicaragua owns the canal],” Cardenal said.

Cardenal also claims that the agreement gives excessive rights to Wang Jing and HKND.

“All of our water, on the surface and underground, will be given to the Chinese,” Cardenal wrote.

“The Great Lake will have only one utility: navigation.  We cannot produce food through irrigation, we can only watch passing boats.

Nor can we drink water from the lake.  We must also take into account that many people make their living by fishing in the like, which they will lose.”

Cardenal also said that the owners of the land that will be expropriated during the construction of the Canal would be paid only the taxable value, rather than the market value for their property.

Cardenal also painted a bleak picture of the Canal’s impact on Nicaragua’s environment.

Cardenal, a native of Granada, said that “the islets of Granada will disappear” as the locks would raise the level of the lake by two meters and that “with every passing ship, huge amounts of fresh water would go to sea.”

“With this canal the country will be divided into two, North Nicaragua and South Nicaragua, as there were two Germanys and as there are two Koreas.  There will be two distinct populations of animals (except those that can fly) which will become more and more different with time, which will hurt our biodiversity,” Cardenal writes.

“The end of Lake Nicaragua would be the greatest crime in the history of our country, and Ortega would become a more abominable figure than William Walker,” Cardenal concludes in his column.

Cardenal is a Nicaraguan Catholic priest, poet and politician.  Cardenal is a former Sandinista and served as Nicaragua’s Minister of Culture from 1979 to 1987.