China will fund Ortega La Costanera, Nicaragua’s ambitious Pacific road project
Nearly $300 million will be added to Nicaragua’s already large debt to China. These are the new loans ordered by the dictatorship
Daniel Ortega’s regime authorized the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit to hire another indebtedness with China, this time to finance the construction of La Costanera, an ambitious road project throughout the Pacific, which arose during the administration of the late former president Enrique Bolaños and which the dictatorship dusted in 2008 and assured priority.
The project is divided into sections and although the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE) also committed resources to improve road within the route through which La Costanera will pass, China now appears with a financing of about 248.55 million dollars to execute two phases of the work: section I and II.
Through the presidential agreement 99-2024, Ortega authorized Carlos José Selva Hernández, money market advisor to the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, to sign two loans with CSCEC International of the Chinese government, on behalf of Nicaragua, in a joint amount of 1.805 million yuan, equivalent to just over 248 million dollars.
Also the BCIE
Of this total, 918.90 million yuan (about 126.53 million dollars) will be allocated for the construction of the first section of La Costanera, which according to projects presented in the past by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure would cover from Masachapa to Las Salinas, in Rivas.
Another $12.98 million will be used for the second tranche.
The Ortega regime had already secured resources with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE) under the X Road Extension and Improvement Programme of $382.58 million. But the funds are only to expand and improve the infrastructure already established and that are within the route of La Costanera.
The dictatorship has faced difficulties in realizing this loan with the BCIE, which was unraveled in the last days of Dante Mossi’s administration last December. Mossi, as an ally of Ortega, provided a first delivery of that fund for $7 76.72 million.
According to an update by the BCIE, since then and despite the dispute recently led by the dictatorship against the bank’s new administration, 146.09 million dollars have already been delivered of the loan and only $236 million is pending.
Read more: What is the coastline and why the project could now be made a reality in Nicaragua
More indebtedness to China
In addition to the loan for La Costanera, the dictatorship also ordered Selva Hernández to sign another loan with China for $33.38 million ($22.39 million yuan) with Chinese company CAMC Engineering Co. Ltd. for the Nicaraguan National Emergency Response System Project of the Implementation Unit Sistema Nacional para la Prevención, Mitigo and Disaster Response.
In this way, Ortega adds to the public debt another $281 million from China, which in return asks for the regime’s loyalty to the Asian giant’s foreign policy, as well as Taiwan’s ignorance, as an independent territory.
With China alone, credit commitments are around $500 million, although so far only three credits have been ratified from a combo of projects that can exceed $4 billion.