Breaking News in Nicaragua 🇳🇮 New Canal Route Announced by Daniel Ortega

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

What are your thoughts on the new canal? Good idea? Bad idea? Never going to happen? Definitely going to happen?

[@1stLukecifer]

No judgements yet; curios to the environmental impact of plan.

[@arosalesmusic]

I think that it would be a good idea if there is no major impact on the environment. But what I have learned is that the Panama canal has since been widened to allow the bigger ships through and it basically makes the Nicaraguan canal irrelevant. But who knows really?.

[@The1Tonic]

No time soon will Nicaragua would start any construction. The focus in the central america may be on Mexico's CIIT rail.

[@likits1999]

Hey man, you're a smart gringo. My hat off to you. Did the gallo pinto convince you to stay there? Nicaragua is awesome and cheap!!!

[@herbertcourtesie2459]

Pipe dream. Decrepit Daniel still fumbling with a fantasy.

[@rogergarciamontoya2822]

Now it makes sense that they are rushing to build the new airport and that the waterfront reaches Corinto, it is all part of the economic and tourist progress, very good for me, greetings from a Nica.

[@sharp5687]

Proud to be Nicaraguan, greetings from Corn Island

[@Adelfuns18]

eeehhhh de la isla del maiz pues.

[@boink800]

A new huge container port has been just opened in Peru which was built with Chinese investment. Finally getting a canal built in Nicaragua (they've been talking about doing this for over 100 years) would make great sense.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Technically over 450 years! FIrst proposed in 1551.

[@tinglestingles]

You need a team of 20 Irishmen with 20 shovels - The Irish built all the canals in the UK!

[@SilverJ56]

Please keep the US government out of the Nicaraguan canal business!!

[@mrright1068]

You are right, the Chinese are much more trustworthy.

[@MatiasDC361]

@@mrright1068 ..How many countries has China invaded in the last 40 years? US is the bully and warmonger

[@The1Tonic]

Thanks Scott for the updates.

[@DughoffDynamics]

Maybe split it up into 2 or more phases? Phase 1: Canal from the Pacific port to Tipitapas and to the inland lake on the Caribbean side, plus railway in between. That way the canal can be operational years earlier compared to waiting for the entire project to finish. Phase 2: dig the rest of the Canal next to the raliway, with the benefit of having a redundancy of transportation modes.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

I think that that would be a challenge because the value of a partial canal is nearly zero. Opertionally, I doubt that they could pay to keep it open.

[@DughoffDynamics]

If that's true, perhaps, if funding is there, complete a rail line first along the same trajectory, to start generating revenue years earlier and show the feasibility of this trade route?

[@schoolnyc]

Hey, it's Ed from Queens. Very interesting! I took your advice and traveled through SJDS to San José. I used a van service, and it turned out to be a great trip, I am now in CR. I was surprised to see a long line of hundreds of trucks at the border. That's when it hit me-Nicaragua has no ports, which explains the limited selection of products. It must be difficult to import merchandise, one truck at a time. It made me wonder: why wouldn't Nicaragua prioritize building a shipping port first?

[@1stLukecifer]

Corinto in the NW corner near El Salvador is the only deep water port to date. A shallow water port exists on the Atlantic side with a wide river going inland a short distance.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

THey are. COrinto is already there and ships a lot, the cargo ships come non-stop both from China and from Panama. But it is Pacific only and tons of what we get here is shipped locally from Costa Rica and Honduras so can't reasonably go to see. Those trucks are almost entirely local goods going up and down the Panamerican, not things from the US, Colombia or further afield. Anything from as far away as Mexico or Panama goes to Corinto, but inside the CA4 and CR it's overland. THe second port at Bluefields is already under construction currently. So a smaller Atlantic port is soon to be operational. That's why there is talk of a train line going to Bluefields to get products to Managua faster, and why the new highway was built there. But the Atlantic ports are still SO far away that they require a lot of overland trucking logistics either way :(

[@robertsteinberger5667]

With rains like we have this year, it wont be a problem filling the canal up with water.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

We actually haven't gotten that much. It was super dry for four months. We're trying to make up for the shortfall now.

[@joshkarow1018]

Thanks for covering this, just saw this news today but there isn't much info out there. I did see in the news release I found that the ministry of transportation signed a construction agreement with the Chinese company CAMC. Glad to see the new route avoids Lake Nicaragua, as a biologist I was very concerned about the ecological impact to such a unique ecosystem.

[@romanvenerio411]

Great News ❤❤❤

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Only a proposal, but the route is an improvement.

[@irmapalacios6911]

That's true? That's awesome!

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

It's true that a new route has been proposed that has some potential to be more realistic than the totally implausible one from the proposal from long ago that never got any traction (thank goodness.) This isn't a project, it's just a route plan. Nothing to get excited about. But worth keeping an eye on in case anyone ever decides to invest in it and do an engineering study.

[@octavioflores-caffarena3926]

Lake Escondido its call like that because the river that will feed it its call rio Escondido

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

OH. yeah makes sense. lol

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

there is another Rio Escondido in SJDS confusingly.

[@damiami6519]

Shouldn’t be confusing when considering there are at least 12 White rivers, 10 Black Rivers, 2 Red Rivers, 9 Yellow Rivers (and these are just major ones, not small rivers) in the US. Good video today.

[@ScottHenney]

I can't find anything about this online.. nothing..

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Well you didn't try AT ALL since the link for it is in my show notes to the government's announcement, and in the show I tell you where it is, and if you look at KZbin lots of people have the same info. Like, you had to work HARD to ignore it. I've had it pop up at least a dozen times from different places today. How can you have missed it?

[@ScottHenney]

@ScottAlanMillerVlog Ok ok . I did search though. But clearly I wasn't paying enough attention to your vdo.. For the record I would love to see a canal that could benefit the nicaraguan people.

[@Guillermo-ym5yn]

Was to be done in Guatemala some ten years ago... but guess what happened to the funds? Another opportunity lost!

[@dallasbarkman1261]

Imagine all the new garbage that'll bring . Panama's shoreline looks like a garbage dump due to all the ships dumping junk. I don't necessarily see this as a good thing

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Yeah, from an environmental perspective, it's got a lot of potential risks.

[@MatiasDC361]

I dont think a canal is a bad thing look at Panama is the richest country in the region sure you have to hand over land and logistics to a foreign country thats a small sacrifice compare to the benefits

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

I don't think Panama would agree. They lost their country for most of a century and by the time they got it back, their country was ravaged and quality of life suffers compared to Nicaragua. The winners in Panama aren't Panamanians, mostly. And never have been. They lost their national identity, their ecology was destroyed, their natural resources were stolen, their freedom was totally obliterated for generations, they were invaded militarily more than once to suppress any semblance of freedom, they never controlled their own territory, they became a drug and refugee transit zone, they lost direct connection with their primary neighbor that could have been an economic boom. The canal had so much potential, but now that it is drying up, all of those decades of disaster and permanent damage for just 23 years of a functional canal seems like a REALL bad trade off. Panama is rich, but that's not a good metric of success. If being rich were all that mattered, the US would be in great shape. But, that's the farthest thing from reality.

[@MatiasDC361]

@@ScottAlanMillerVlog ..Because it was built by a war mongering country China only wants trade and commerce

[@MatiasDC361]

@@ScottAlanMillerVlog ...Unfortunately for Panama their canal was built by the most war mongering country in history lol

[@rickkrey7119]

Thanks Scott for this super interesting topic. The costs would be incredible being some 5x ++ longer than Panama Canal and higher mountains ? China may think it’s worth it for long-term strategic reasons, regardless of costs. The proposed Mexico rail line sounds more serious.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

There is a proposed Nicaragua rail line as well, using train beds already in place in some key places.

[@livingabroadwitheric]

Nice video SAM. Very interesting news. China is nearing the completion of their super port in chancay Peru as well which theyll have exclusive control over (for around 20 or 30 years? Cant recall) China is definitely making their connections with LATAM and trying to redefine the regional logistics for sure

[@carmentilioocasio3969]

I Don’t know Rick !

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Rick?

[@irmapalacios6911]

When this project is going to start?

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

DId you watch the video? I say over and over that it's a proposed route, there is absolutely no project. If an engineering study is done, that will take a year or two at least, and it is found to be feasible, and investors are found, which is nearly impossible, then MAYBE in many years it could start. The earliest reasonable would be around a decade. The idea is 450 years old and always talked about, the liklihood of it ever happening is extremely low.

[@KingBravo-lo3vc]

This looks like it would take days for a ship to pass, and the point of a canal is to save time. So it would have to be a big discount to the Panama canal. But with the Panama Canal being limited by lack of water it could serve as an overflow.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

If you look at how much shorter the total distance is, part of the draw of a Nicaragua canal is using a lot less time and fuel compared to Panama. It doesn't add tons of north south travel like Panama, and neither add any east west. So it's much shorter distance in total, and a lot less fuel.

[@pointerish]

The Panama Canal is also having capacity problems. Ships are getting bigger. I suppose the idea of a new canal is to make it bigger so it can handle current and future (to a point) cargo ships.

[@KingBravo-lo3vc]

@@pointerish The Panama Canal added 3 locks a couple of years ago that can handle anything practical. Some ships plying the Oceans today are so large that no port could accept them in the Americas. To resolve that, the Chinese just built a new port in Chile, where they load things from those behemoths onto Panamaxes to be delivered to the ports in the Americas.

[@pointerish]

@@KingBravo-lo3vc Interesting. Didn’t know that. The new Chinese port is in Peru though, not in Chile.

[@mrright1068]

This is very interesting. This space is getting busy. Mexico building a rail connection, now Nicaragua. The economics is going to be interesting. Could Nicaragua become the new Panama?

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Probably not. The most likely thing is Nicaragua's dry canal (I hate that term, it's just trains) that already partially existing in the past. They just need to put that portion back and then extend to Bluefields. Nicaragua is in good shape to have a high capacity dry canal that doesn't need to go super far.

[@AxelPeralta]

What about the people who own the land around and environmental impact? No one is really talking about it.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

That's because there's nothing to talk about. Like any highway, canal, train or similar project anywhere in the world, there has to be eminent domain for massive infrastructure projects. On the VERY unlikely chance that the project actually turns into something, which is like 10,000:1, given that there isn't even a hint of interest at this point, then it's standard eminent domain like in the US where the government buys your property.

[@jumpinjehoshaphat1951]

Several months ago, Noriega pulled out of a decade-long canal concession with a Chinese businessman that went nowhere. Unless Panama fails in its drought mitigation efforts, this is going nowhere too.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Noriega died in 2017. In March, Nicaragua, but not Ortega himself, via the National Assembly removed any concessions for the canal. They were nullified around 2014 already, but were left on the books because they were already nullified. But early this year, all concessions were officially removed which ended the false speculation that many news outlets had that somehow they could be resurrected (they could not, that was totally false.) They weren't concessions to a businessman, that was a simplification, they were to a company that no longer existed and could not exist again making them impossible to use, even by the same person.

[@healing_with_nature1]

China China Chinaaaaaa

[@damiami6519]

I always crack up ( and end up saying it the rest of the day) Russia, Russia, Russia!!!

[@oscarellis2563]

You should have made a Breaking News Notice! Costa Rica will be looking how to stop this as it will start costing them their tourist dollars.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Why would CR care? It can't impact tourism. I mean maybe one or two people. But like CR would never notice a drop. If anything, it might be an increase for them. Adding more to see and do in Nicaragua only helps them, too. CR gets SO many tourists, everything in the region benefits them (if getting MORE tourism is beneficial.) THere's nothing about this that is negative for CR. Also, CR has no power to influence this, but they'd certainly don't care. If anything, it gives them more logistical options in the region, too.

[@oscarellis2563]

@ScottAlanMillerVlog it's good you asked, don't know where you were a decade ago however Latin America was getting more than expats due to the GFC alot of people lost alot in it and so many migrated South bound to stretch their USD from Mexico to Colombia and as most went to those large Cities it wasn't until around 2015 little Nicaragua started getting major publicity Internationally due to it had been war torn Country previously kept it to dangerous for most tourist. Around 2015 Nicaragua was one of the safest Countries due to the strong Millitary it kept Narcos and Cartels out so this gave it a good reputation to travel the Jungles of Central America on the budget and it was becoming very popular as CR is very expensive and every man and their dog had already been there😆 Long story short there was a coup in 2017 paid and sponsored by the USA and there's some people believing that CR also had involvement due to them starting to loose the top spot and alot of investing was coming into the Country. BTW I didn't come up with the theory that was told to me by a Nicaraguan and as I was there it was devastating watching the tyranny as many old people were in fear as they hadn't seen that type of revolution since the 70s and those people lost family fighting for the Nicaraguan dream of Freedom. After it passed I returned to my Country and stayed in touch as I've got land there also😊 however many large foreign companies left and then the plandemic causing many Nicas to flea due to being involved in the coup or for financial reason to provide. From what I gathered Nicas working abroad and sending money home is like the 3rd largest income for the Country, your much more informed and educated so maybe Scott Miller can do a show on that topic one day🙌😊

[@davewilson4903]

I see mountains with altitude of 400 meters,that's a crazy amount solid rock to remove. don't see it happening.I read of interest of a dry canal in Costa Rica coming from Saudi Arabia.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Costa Rica has a lot of mountains, a lot more than Nicaragua, to contend with and Saudi Arabia just had to start shutting down their internal projects due to a lack of money. Seems unlikely that they'd be investing in Costa Rica, but it's plausible. Mexico has a dry canal in serious talks, as does Nicaragua. Personally I think the Nicaragua dry canal is the sensible option of the three.

[@frankdnb1142]

They’re just gonna mount the ships into the train that runs that route. 🤣

[@patriciaflaherty]

Uh oh...do you think your properties could fall to Nicaragua's version of eminent domain 😳?

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Not likely, that would mean wiping out the beach to put in a canal. Seems foolish.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

But I have friends who own in the new port zone and easily it could happen there.

[@danielrosales1448]

Minimazing the risk of contaminating a huge lake being Cocibolca and using a very contaminated lake Xolotlan instead makes more sense. However, it increases more than a hundred kilometers and I dont think it's profitable if so. Gotta wait until we know the impact of this project.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Well teh old route was DEFINITELY not profitable and required being a canal THROUGH the lake. So this one isn't actually longer (or much longer) than the old one. It just seems that way because people didn't realize that the entire riverway and lakeway of the old proposal required an underwater canal to be built which is probably harder than one on land.

[@desertburnn6545]

what kind of cannabis do the have in Nicaragua? legal?

[@frankdnb1142]

We all have different kinds, depends on your contacts. Not legal.

[@deanna3277]

Esclusa la fuente.....locks

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

OOOHHHHH

[@likits1999]

I wonder if the salt water from the oceans will neutralize the poo water from the Lago de Managua. Sad, if the poo water from the Lago gets washed out to the oceans. Look, brown barnicles on the Hapag Lloyd ship. 😂😂😂😂

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Canals only flow outward. so it'll be ocean poo soon.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

the poo isn't a concern. it's the heavy metals.

[@likits1999]

@@ScottAlanMillerVlog I subscribed. Youre awesome. Thank you for liking my country! Enjoy it to the fullest mi brother!

[@SilvanaTorchia-el5ri]

Hola thank for the news I am leaving in Little Corn and I have a house to sell Can you help me for the raison?

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

How would I help with that?

[@pointerish]

I don’t think this is going to happen and if it does it might be ultimately bad for the country.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

It's very unlikely, and yes, it is likely bad for the county if they do. THis route seems much better than the old proposal, though. That was SO bad.

[@xochipili1]

Im sure the mexican dry canal through the isthmas of Tehuantepec must havd prodded someone.😺

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

More likely the sudden collapse of the Panama Canal with no options going forward. The viability of a canal in Nicaragua is still super low, but higher than it was a year ago.

[@tinglestingles]

I wondered how quickly 'China investment' would come up - then it did.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Well it's a China investment conference. The hope is to convince China to get involved by proposing a more practical route. We'll see if they are interested at all. The cost is insane, so it'll be a pretty tough sell.

[@Guillermo-ym5yn]

@@ScottAlanMillerVlog Their missiles will be closer... if you read between the lines...

[@chrisl8355]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!! This will never be built.

[@wokeslayer577]

you are wrong friend..Whill NEVER-EVAAAAA!!!!!!! get build

[@solomonsislandphotography4824]

Than you the information. I respectfully disagree with you that the newly proposed route holistically makes more sense than previously proposed routes. 240 miles……it’s a trial balloon and exploration on the best ROI on foreign investment. Ultimately, there be $$$ spent on studies but the amount of terrain will not make sense. Do you know where we stand with the rail system already announced within Nicaragua? Take care. Thanks.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

The rail system is moving forward, but it isn't along this route. Even when completed, the train that has been announced can't be used for coast to coast transit.

[@indigitalformat]

oh no...

[@indigitalformat]

Please send links with official sources.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

I listed the official sources in the video and linked it in the description when first posted. THere are no links to "the 19", they don't work that way, news is ephemeral. The permanent government news was linked. Remember that Nicaragua doesn't use links like the US. The official source is the government news outlets. You need to be subscribed if you want to get the news as they don't provide it to those not subscribed. The image shows IS the governments image from the news.

[@rogergarciamontoya2822]

Now it makes sense that they are rushing to build the new airport and that the waterfront reaches Corinto, it is all part of the economic and tourist progress, very good for me, greetings from a Nica.

[@ScottAlanMillerVlog]

Those things definitely don't matter timing-wise, for this. Those things are critical infrastructure that we need. Well, not sure what you mean about Corinto, that's our existing port, I'm guessing you mean its counterpart port at Bluefields. But that's needed for shipping logistics. The airport is needed so that the blockade running long haul flights from Europe and SOuth America can come to Nicaragua and not be forced to only go to Costa Rica or Honduras. We've long needed a full international airport (as opposed to only a regional one.). Those things have long been in the works. This canal is only a design and on the very unlikely chance that it becomes a project, will be decades behind those others. Those could wait twenty years and still beat the canal, if it ever even happens.