Too many Canals? A challenge for Panama

THE VIABILITY of a second waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the building of a dry canal has sparked a  vigorous debate in Central America.

It is not even clear whether there is a need for another canal in Central America then obviously some or all of the routes currently being planned, are not going to work says CentralAMericaData

Andres Oppenheimer, writing  in Elnuevoherald.com, notes the incongruity of having so many projects, making so much effort and so much investment in order to transversely divide up Central America, rather than applying those resources to uniting their countries throughout the isthmus. 
Nicaragua recently announced the signing of a contract with a Chinese company to build a canal for $40 billion, and Guatemala has made public its intention of having its own dry canal for more than $12 billion. 
Oppenheimer from consulted Guatemala's ambassador in Washington, Francisco Villagran, on whether the government of that country supported the project and the diplomat said yes. "The government wants to provide every facility so that the project will be viable, because it is in the government's interest as well as municipal governments and the communities which this corridor would pass through," he added.
"If the projects in Nicaragua and Guatemala materialize, they would be competing with the Panama Canal as a means for transporting containers from the U.S. and Latin America to Asia, and vice versa," However, according to the former director of the Panama Canal, Alberto Aleman, this does not make much sense.
In his view, "it will be much more expensive and complicated to transport products through Guatemala and Nicaragua than through Panama, because while the Panama Canal is only 80 kilometers long, and Panama already has a highway and a transoceanic railroad, the Guatemalan corridor would be 372 kilometers long, and the Nicaraguan canal 290 kilometers long. "