Nicaragua Canal: Connects Ocean, Disconnects People
The $50 billion Nicaragua Canal scheme promises to bring huge economic benefits to Central America's poorest country. But environmentalists and peasant farmers strongly oppose the project. And many are wary of the Chinese company that is to construct the canal. The massive canal will connect the Pacific and Caribbean and could reduce the cost of shipping commodities from Europe to Asia. The canal would be both longer and wider than the Panama Canal. Canal critics fear there will be confiscations of land, environmental mayhem and a job boom that will bypass the locals. In an interview with BBC today (March 19), Wang Jing, the Chinese billionaire who intends to build a shipping canal through Nicaragua connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific, has dismissed the project's critics.
Treasure Hunters File Another Suit Against Columbia
Sea Search Armada's (SSA) lawsuit against the Government of Colombia in U.S. District Court, Washington D.C. claims it interfered with SSA's legitimate treasure salvage operations. The galleon San Jose carried coins and precious metals mined and smelted in Peru, and valued by experts to between $4 billion and $17 billion. The ship was sunk outside Cartagena, Colombia in 1708. In 1980, a marine salvage operation was mounted by a group now owned by SSA with the permission and participation of the Colombian government (GOC). After discovering the San Jose wreck site and notifying the GOC, the Colombians reneged on their agreement to share proceeds of any recovered treasure. In 1984, the Colombian Parliament enacted a law eliminating SSA’s claims to its property.
American Investors and Colombian Government Battle over $17 Billion Treasure Salvage
A group of investors sued the Colombian government for preventing American salvage group Sea Search Armada from recovering San Jose, a ship that sank in 1708, often referred to as the “Holy Grail of Shipwrecks.” With numerous court rulings throughout the years, the battle has lasted since 1979. In a case filed March 29 with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), a group of American investors claimed the government of Colombia violated their human rights by preventing them from salvaging their jointly owned property, a Spanish galleon sunk in 800 feet of water near Cartagena, Colombia. The investment group, named Sea Search Armada (SSA), brought the suit after more than 20 years of various legal efforts to affirm SSA’s initial agreement with Colombia.
