Nicaragua’s leftist government, which has diplomatic relations with Taiwan, is seeking to lure investments from China — in part to offset a possible loss of support from its regional ally Venezuela.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government is heavily dependent on aid from fellow leftist Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, including subsidized oil and preferential terms on long-term loans.
However, Chavez faces a stiff challenge in his bid for another term in the Oct. 7 presidential election from Henrique Capriles, candidate from the unified opposition.
Even if he is re-elected, Chavez has battled with cancer for more than a year, and his health remains a question mark.
Since Ortega was re-elected in 2007 Nicaragua has received about US$2 billion in Venezuelan aid, according to official figures — and if elected, Capriles has vowed to review that aid.
“Ortega is getting prepared for a possible reduction in aid from Venezuela” given Chavez’s “uncertain” future, opposition lawmaker and ex-foreign affairs minister Victor Tinoco said.
Tinoco said the government is looking at new investors in “all the mega-projects” that it intended to pursue with Venezuelan capital.
Those projects include a US$30 billion inter-oceanic canal through Nicaragua to compete with the Panama Canal, and a US$6.5 billion petrochemical complex to refine, store and distribute fuel to all of Central America.
One possible replacement for Venezuela is China — but Nicaragua is one of 23 countries in the world that has diplomatic relations with Taiwan instead of China.
Latin America, the South Pacific and Africa have been the main battlegrounds for China and Taiwan, which have accused each other of luring allies away with “checkbook diplomacy.”
However, Managua’s ties to Taipei have not stopped Nicaragua’s interest in dealing with China.
This month, Nicaragua said it is in negotiations with China to purchase a US$300 million satellite which they hope launch into orbit by 2016.
The project, Nicasat-1, will cost approximately US$300 million. The Nicaraguan government plans to seek financing from Chinese banks, which have offered favorable interest rates.
“In mid-October of this year, the two parties are going to conclude the negotiations on all aspects of this contract,” said He Xing (何星), vice president of the Great Wall of China satellite company, on a visit to Managua.
Earlier this month, Ortega announced that a Chinese company will conduct a feasibility study on building the inter-oceanic canal.
“This is an extraordinary and very important piece of news that may affect the future not only of Nicaragua, but of Central America as a whole,” Ortega said.
The current plan calls for building a canal from Monkey Point on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast to Puerto Corinto on the Pacific Ocean. The announcement was made after Ortega met with Chinese businessman Wan Jin (王靖), head of Xinwei Telecom, who is interested in a license to operate a mobile telephone network in Nicaragua.
Trade between the central American country of six million and the Asian giant reached US$17 million last year.
Just as the Chinese government “has shown interest in the Grand Canal project that we are proposing, we also will continue provide openings,” said Ortega’s son Laureano, an adviser to the government investment agency ProNicaragua, on the government’s official Web site.
In Latin America, countries that recognize Taiwan over China include Paraguay, Haiti and Guatemala.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS