WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 09, 2015
Nicaragua and the Inter-Oceanic Canal
Nicaragua and the Inter-Oceanic Canal
Prepared for the Nicaragua Network / Alliance for Global Justice in July 2015 by Katherine Hoyt
A waterway across Nicaragua has been a dream that the country has been unable to let go of:
*Trade networks of Nicaragua’s indigenous inhabitants used Lake Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua) and the San Juan River to cross the continent before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in 1524.
*In 1567 Philip II of Spain sent engineer Juan Bautista Antonellito do the first feasibility study for a canal. He didn’t think it could be done.
*But, starting in the 1800s, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United States and France all showed interest.
One reason – the continental divide is lower in southern Nicaragua than anywhere else on the continents of North and South America.
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