The Nicaraguan government under Daniel Ortega is planning to build a canal similar to the already known Panama Canal. This $150 billion project will pass through the Lake Nicaragua, the country's most important fresh water reserve, and through many populated areas including protected indigenous territories. This will displace around 120.000 people and cause irreversible ecological damage. To make matters worse, the Chinese telecommunication magnate behind the project, Wang Jing, is going to get a 100-year canal concession, which will grant him control over great parts of the country. There have already been many accounts from people living under future construction areas, who have seen foreigners accompanied by police or military making land measurements. Peaceful protests against the construction of the canal had also been cracked down violently by the police. It is important to consider that peaceful protests are not effective against construction projects of this magnitude as has been seen in the construction of the Three Gorges Dam in China and more recently in the Dakota Access Pipeline in Standing Rock Reservation, USA. Seeing how the situation is escalating and the obvious views of the Nicaraguan government on how to treat their people, the population in Nicaragua must all come together and organize strikes and defend their lands with all the means possible. People in the future construction areas are about to lose everything they have for the profit of a few and the ecological damages will be carried by the whole country for generations to come. It's time for Nicaragua to unite against this injustice, to get organized and to fight back against this brutal oppression.
