The “Interoceanic Grand Canal” (IGC) is about to be dug across Nicaragua to compete with the Panama Canal by as early as 2019. The Sandinista government of Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega granted a 100 year concession to the Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company (HKND).  The IGC will cut more than 1,000 miles and a day’s time off trips by supertankers, giant container ships and potentially Chinese warships to connect from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean. As the poorest in the Western Hemisphere except for Haiti, Nicaragua sees the project as a spectacular economic boost.  But the Chinese not only see the canal for trade, but also as a way to push back against Washington’s militarized “Pacific Pivot” and Trans-Pacific Partnership that seeks to contain China’s global economic and military power. The idea of constructing a man-made waterway across Central America originated in...(Read Full Post)