Just months after pledging to build a long-dreamed-about “Nicaragua Canal,” the government of President Daniel Ortega is now turning its attention to another dizzyingly expensive megaproject: a Venezuelan-backed oil pipeline and refinery scheme dubbed the “Supremo Sueño de Bolivar,” Bolivar’s Supreme Dream. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posts Tagged ‘Hugo Chavez’
Chávez Cancer Reports Spell Trouble For Venezuela-Dependent Nicaragua
September 5, 2012
Ortega and Chavez: Friends, allies and ‘socios’ (Flickr/chavezcandanga)
A huge question mark for Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez’ ongoing health problems are also making waves in Nicaragua, where Daniel Ortega has good reason to pray for his cross-Caribbean counterpart’s full and speedy recovery. Read the rest of this entry ?
Ortega Presente! Nicaraguan President Begins Contitutionally-Questionable Third Term
July 4, 2012
Daniel Ortega (right) with allies Rafael Correa (center) and Hugo Chavez — (Presidencia de la Republica de Ecuador/Flickr)
If the thin turnout at last month’s inauguration ceremony is any indication, Nicaragua’s recently reelected president, Daniel Ortega, is running low these days on foreign friends. But at home, the one-time Marxist revolutionary remains popular – and arguably more powerful than at any previous point in his decades-old political career. Read the rest of this entry ?
Assessing South America’s Atomic Energy Future After Fukushima
August 5, 2011
Argentina's Embalse Nuclear Plant (Credit - Lucas/Flickr)
The recent nuclear disaster in Japan’s tsunami-damaged Fukushima reactor has shaken – but not buried – plans for an atomic energy surge in South America, which right now has just four of the world’s 442 nuclear power plants. Read the rest of this entry ?
Electricity Crisis Spells Dark Days For Venezuela, Chavez
February 12, 2010
Power shortages are adding to Venezuela's woes (courtesy of Flickr creative commons/Cecilia)
Home to one of the world’s most extensive oil and natural gas reserves, energy-rich Venezuela is nevertheless experiencing serious power problems at the moment, grappling with an acute electricity crisis that has resulted in rationing, rolling blackouts and periodic protests.
The government blames Mother Nature. In recent months a prolonged drought has parched the country, causing severe water shortages. A side effect has been decreased water flow (and thus reduced capacity) to the massive Guri Dam, a 10,200-megawatt (MW) behemoth that supplies more than 70 % of the country’s electricity. Located along Bolivar State’s Rio Caroni, the 1,300 meter-long dam – officially called the Central Hidroeléctrica Simon Bolivar – is the world’s third largest after the Three Gorges Dam (18,300 MW) in China and the Itaipu complex (14,000 MW) along the Brazil/Paraguay border.
