The groundbreaking ceremony for the Nicaragua Canal took place on December 22, 2014, in a pasture area near the city of Brito, on the Nicaraguan Pacific coast. The event brought together President Daniel Ortega and Chinese businessman Wang Jing, who had received a 100-year concession to build and operate the interoceanic canal. Excavators were positioned, speeches were given, and images circulated globally as a symbol of one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects of the 21st century.
In the following weeks, however, reality set in. Not a single meter was excavated, no structured funding was formalized, and no large-scale technical mobilization took place. The only physical structure resulting from…