Is the Proposed Nicaragua Canal Scientifcally Sound?

You've heard the expression "the devil is in the details." Details about President Daniel Ortega's ambitious cross-country canal have been scarce, even though Nicaragua's Asamblea Nacional approved the project two years ago and HKND (Hong Kong Nicaraguan Canal Development Investment Company) was chosen as the developer in mid-2013.  

While there was skepticism, opponents--and supporters--did not know how to react to the waterway--known as the Gran Canal Interoceánico de Nicaragua (GCIN)--except in the vaguest of terms. The Ortega administration did offer some information about the project nearly a year before the actual route was released by HKND. But hen the government was confronted with the question of why officials failed on such a high level to consult with any of the communities involved, they explained that because the route was yet unknown, they could not consult with any communities in particular.

This fall,  HKND  released details of the project,including the exact route is for the waterway that will connect the Caribbean to the Pacific Oceans. This information has allowed  scientists and environmental researchersto publish their first informed assessments of the project. Both the Academia de Ciencas de Nicaragua  (ACN) and Centro Humboldt, a leading non-government environmental research center based in Managua, have highlighted the immense environmental, and socioeconomic repercussions that will inevitably result from the construction of the Gran Canal Interoceánico de Nicaragua (GCIN).

The ACN report argues that the project will cause incredible damage to biodiversity and natural and  aquifers as well infringe as the collective rights and well-being of many communities, including some that reside within protected, semi-autonomous regions. There is a “Message to the Nation” in the final section, which explains that the ACN “applauds all efforts for national economic development,” but also also urgently recommends “that such national projects should always pay close attention to all possible unintended consequences… and to follow the suggestions of relevant environmental, social and economic studies of impact.”

Without explicitly opposing the concept of the canal, the ACN report directs its criticisms at the specific plan proposed by HKND and brings the Chinese firm and the Nicaraguan government to task for failing to heed suggestions from environmental experts and community leaders.

A separate  report published by Víctor Campos, sub-director of Centro Humboldt, provides further information about the obvious and prolonged impacts that the canal will inevitably have on the fresh water supply in Lago de Nicaragua as well as the fragile biodiversity in the Cerro Silva Natural Reserve, an area that is also home to indigenous communities. These communities were not consulted despite the plan’s stipulations for the right to acquire whatever land HKND finds necessary.

At the end of Campos’ response, he too makes no explicit opposition to the idea of a canal in general, but leaves the nation with a list of suggestions and conclusions that include,”1. The best route will not pass through the Lago de Nicaragua; 2. That there has been a decision made at the National level to systemically ignore the voices of qualified scientists and experts; and 3. Eventually, Nicaraguans will be able to influence the decisions of the nation, but as of now, they will not be able to influence the decisions of this company and their enterprise.”

Both reports, which come from science-based entities, made the point that, aside from the proven and inevitable environmental and socioeconomic repercussions of the construction, much of the current problem lies outside the realm of science and environmental research itself. Both reports suggest the problem lies in the lack of transparency in the process. The national government and HKND failed to  make crucial information available to the public, failed to consult with the communities that will be directly displaced and affected, and ignored loud opposition from experts in scientific research.

-Jake Sandler


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Argentine Forensic Team Working in Guerrero

Photo: Via Creative Commons on Flickr

A team of Argentine forensic experts arrived in Iguala in Guerrero state in Mexico on Oct. 7 to help federal and state authorities identify the remains of bodies found in a clandestine, mass graves. It is unclear how many of the bodies uncovered in the mass grave are connected to the disappearance of 43 students following protests in Iguala on Sept. 26.This week’s issue of SourceMex lays out the array of unclear reports regarding what actually transpired on Sept 26, when students at a teacher’s college organized a protest against plans to cut funding to their university.

The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (Equipo Argentino de Antropologia Forense, or EAAF), was founded in the mid-1980s when a team was formed to investigate the remains of disappeared families in Argentina. Since that project, EAAF has expanded its work to over 30 countries and helped form the Association of Latin American Association of Forensic Anthropology (ALAF). The two organizations have worked jointly in Guatemala, Bolivia, Spain, Colombia , Mexico and other countries. The joint work of EAAF and ALAF in Mexico dates back to the early 2000s, when the EAAF was asled tp participate in an international seminar titled "Truth Commissions: Torture, Reparations, and Prevention." Recently, EAAF was asked to assist a new Special Prosecutor investigating cases of people disappeared for political reasons during the 1960's and 1970's. Over the past several years, EAAF members worked in the state of Chihuahua on a project to exhume, analyze, and attempt to identify the remains of over a hundred individuals associated with the investigation of murdered and disappeared women in Ciudad Juárez.

The EAAF's mission statement explicitly states that the objectives of the team are to cater to the wishes of relatives of victims and their communities, and that  "the team's track record in international tribunals displays a deep and sincere dedication to truth and “the historical reconstruction of the recent past, often distorted or hidden by the parties or government institutions which are themselves implicated in the crimes under investigation."

Even though  President Enrique Peña Nieto's administration requested the intervention of the EAAF,  family members of the victims are relying on the Argentine experts for truth and justice because of  deep distrust of police and government authorities. Melitón Ortega, a relative of one of the missing students, has publicly expressed his distrust of state involvement in the investigation, representing a general attitude among his community members that the police and the government are the last people they want in charge of investigating this site.

So will the Argentine team succeed in helping relatives of  the students arrive at the truth? The task might be difficult. A slew of reports in the last week have revealed that the Argentine forensic team has had difficulty accessing the grave site, where state and federal authorities are tightly securing the area.

-Jake Sandler

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Blue Helmets on Mexican Soldiers

Daniel Košinár  (Wikimedia Commons)

If you examine the composition of UN Peacekeeping forces, you would be hard-pressed to find any Mexican soldiers.  That is about to change with President  Enrique Peña Nieto's recent commitment to provide military and civilian personnel to UN missions.
The Mexican president made that pledge during an address to the UN General Assembly during the last week of September.

Peña Nieto, of course, would still have to comply with the Mexican Constitution, which prohibits any chief executive from unilaterally offering Mexican troops for peacekeeping forces. The president would require the consent of the Senate. Convesrsely, Peña Nieto and other future president are allowed to provide military and civilian personnel for UN humanitiarian missions without a vote from the Senate. How was Peña Nieto's decision received in Mexico?  There were many supporters and some detractors.  Read more in this week's issue of SourceMex.

Marie Lan-Nguyen (Wikimedia Commons)

Let's say hypothetically that Mexico had committed troops to UN peacekeeping operations a while back. Where would these Mexican soldiers be located? Currently, there are 16 ongoing UN Peacekeeping Operations, including Haiti, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, several Middle Eastern nations, as well as nine countries in Africa, from the Western Sahara to Democratic Republic of the Congo.

There are currently over 116,000 military and police personnel working under UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), and although many personnel are armed and trained in military operations, the DPKO’s main purpose and protocol does not normally involve active combat, but rather helping local security forces to establish the proper conditions for end of conflict and lasting peace. The UN does not have its own military force, and relies completely on contributions from member states.

There is some risk in committing military personnel to an area of conflict. In its 66-year history, the DPKO has suffered 3,177 fatalities, with more than two-thirds occurring since 1993. Uruguay, Haiti, Argentina, Guatemala and Spain have lost dozens of troops, although the majority of the casualties have come from Sub-Saharan African and Northern European nations.  While armed conflict has been the major reason for the loss of lives, more than 1,000 deaths  have occurred because of illness. The two places with the highest incident of fatalities have been Lebanon and the Congo.
-Jake Sandler

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