Qué Diría Carlos? The ‘No al Canal’ Movement and the Rhetoric of Resistance to Nicaragua’s ‘Grand Canal’

Abstract

The legal framework and potential threat of a Chinese-built interoceanic canal across Nicaragua garnered a strong ‘No al Canal’ movement because the concession, Law 840, sanctioned significant human and environmental rights violations. This chapter analyses the important role played by women in the movement and employs a feminist perspective to explore how two leaders leveraged their unique identities, as a farmer and a lawyer respectively, to obtain national and international support for the movement. It also examines ways in which the ‘No al Canal’ movement employed the language of the original founders of the Sandinista National Liberation Front as a kind of rhetorical trap to reinforce how far the Nicaraguan government had deviated from the original Sandinista philosophy in authorizing the building of the canal. Finally, this chapter explores how the ‘No al Canal’ movement maintained nonviolent discipline, even in the light of violent repression by the regime against the protestors.