Nicaragua Canal protests resume
Hundreds of villagers from Matiguás, in the northern department of Matagalpa,marched peacefully through the streets of the population against the project of building a canal for this country, which officially started on December 22.
The march, organized by the Matiguás Commission for Civic Environmental Protection was also in solidarity with Nicaraguans living in t places where and would be expropriated says an EFE News Agency report.
During the demonstration, which is the first to be held this year against the canal project, villagers shouted, “Nicaragua will not become chinalandia! “,” No to the channel””Out Chinese!”, “[President Daniel] Ortega traitor”.
The protests began in September after officials of the Sandinista government and HKND Group, the Chinese firm that will build and operate the Grand Canal,, said those affected by the work must leave their properties and receive compensation at their land’s assessed value, with no option, according to organizers of the protests.
The project will cost $50 billion dollars.
Environmentalists have warned of serious damage to the Great Lake, the largest freshwater reservoir in Central America
The Grand Canal of Nicaragua is projected 278 kilometers, between 230 and 520meters wide and 30 meters deep, including a stretch of 105 kilometers in the Great Lake of Nicaragua.Besides digging the canal, HKND Group plans to build by 2019 ,roads, two ports, an artificial lake, an airport, a resort, a free trade zone steel mills and concrete plants.
