China expands its mining control in Nicaragua as the regime of former guerrilla Daniel Ortega hands over territories
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The Sandinista regime of Ortega-Murillo authorized three new open-pit mining concessions in the departments of Nueva Segovia and Boaco. According to the official newspaper La Gaceta, the company Three Gold Coins Company S.A. received two lots: "El Parquer" (6,513 ha) and "La Virgen" (1,428 ha) in Nueva Segovia; meanwhile, the firm Little Stone Mine S.A. obtained "El Triunfo" (13,361 ha) in Boaco.
These licenses total 21,303 hectares, and are part of a larger wave of allocations to Chinese capital that already covers half a million hectares and continues to advance unchecked.
Ortega continúa dando concesiones a China
In fact, records and analyses show that since 2023, companies linked to China ―such as Zhong Fu Development S.A. (181,254 ha), Thomas Metal S.A. (127,480 ha), and others― have accumulated more than 500,000 hectares in mining concessions approved by the Nicaraguan state. A report specifically indicates 660,000 ha, which is equivalent to more than 5% of the country's territory.
The licenses are not only extensive but are granted in record time and with no consultation.
Several of the concessions are even within protected areas or indigenous territories. Environmental organizations, such as Fundación del Río (led by the exiled Amaru Ruiz), warn that these licenses violate the communal law of indigenous peoples by being granted without consultation.
Socialist hypocrisy
The Sandinista regime is a specialist in narrative. In April 2023, Ortega declared "Our Nicaragua, which continues fighting against imperialist domination... is in full solidarity with all the efforts of the People's Republic of China…". In every commemoration of the Sandinista revolution, Ortega also emphasizes the fight against "imperialism, colonialism".
Daniel Ortega, líder del regimen sandinista.
However, the facts show the opposite: they are giving away their territorial and political sovereignty to the Chinese communist regime. The worst part is that they do not even use such resources to improve citizens' lives, because the destination of those funds remains opaque within an authoritarian system.
China avanza sobre Nicaragua
This strategy of massive concessions to China not only concerns Nicaraguans but the entire Latin American region, because it shows how authoritarian regimes can use the facade of "development" to open their territory to foreign capital without controls.
