Date of Award
1-1-2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Organizational Unit
Geography and the Environment
First Advisor
Matthew J. Taylor, Ph.D.
Second Advisor
Lynn Holland
Third Advisor
Andrew Goetz
Fourth Advisor
Eric Boschmann
Keywords
Nicaragua, China, Canal
Abstract
This research investigates the political economy of Nicaragua's development, with specific emphasis on Venezuela and China's influence, energy policy, and environmental and social justice related to the Nicaragua canal. The first section focuses on the political economy of the current Ortega administration in Nicaragua, as part of the return of left-leaning leadership in Latin America since the early 2000s. This study examines the Ortega administration's selective interpretation of the concept of imperialism and its effect on the environment as it pertains to US interests, Venezuelan oil financing and socialist rhetoric, and China's control over a large piece of Nicaraguan territory to build an interoceanic canal. The next section uses political ecology to address how Nicaragua has balanced its aggressive renewable energy initiative in light of Venezuela's large-scale funding of the Ortega regime from its oil revenues in exchange for an ideological alliance through ALBA and access to the Pacific coast for oil exports to China. Part three of this research focuses on China's involvement in the Nicaragua canal. Nicaragua's Ortega administration granted a massive concession to Chinese company HKND to build the elusive "grand canal" across Nicaragua, though various national interests have pursued the interoceanic canal for centuries. The fourth and final section focuses on the social, environmental, and political issues surrounding the legal concession granted to the Chinese company HKND to build the interoceanic canal.
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Rights Holder
Sarah McCall Harris
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
File Format
application/pdf
Language
en
File Size
164 p.
Recommended Citation
McCall Harris, Sarah, "The Political Economy of Sandinismo 2.0: Environmental and Social Implications of Paradoxical Economic Ideologies in Post-Revolutionary Nicaragua" (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1431.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1431
Copyright date
2018
Discipline
Geography, Latin American studies, International relations
Included in
Geography Commons, International Relations Commons, Latin American Languages and Societies Commons