The Phenix Group, a Florida based company, has developed an innovative method to expedite the circulation of petroleum: A Coast to Coast Pipeline Across Nicaragua for Transporting Petroleum Products in Bulk between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. From an economic viewpoint the proposed plan seems brilliant, but for the indigenous communities inhabiting the land it would most likely be a disaster. The members of the Monkey Point community are therefore voicing their concerns to halt the advancement of the project and protect the ecosystem on which they depend.
The Panama Canal is the major transportation connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, with a current monopoly on the transportation of natural resources such as petroleum and other goods. The Canal is to too narrow for large freights and tankers to pass through, which forces smaller ships to take multiple trips, an inefficient method of transport. Headed by the Phenix Group, the Central American Pipeline Project would build a 470 kilometer oil pipeline across the country of Nicaragua, enabling a more efficient exchange of oil between the oceans by preventing unnecessary trips.
Plans for construction are set to begin at the end of this year unless indigenous community members from Monkey Point, who would be negatively impacted by the project, can make their protest heard. According the proposed project, oil tankers would anchor two miles off he Caribbean shores of Monkey Point and connect to oil-collecting buoys. A terminal would be constructed in Monkey Point for oil storage, from which the crude oil would be transported to the ships. From this terminal up to 480,000 barrels of oil would be pumped daily across Nicaragua through three underground pipelines.
Community members are concerned about the environmental implications of the project on their land. The people depend on the natural resources of the community for their existence and fear that the pipeline would destroy many of their native species and replete the land of its richness.
According to local nurse Pearl Watson “People [in Monkey Point] live on the fishing and producing of the land. What benefit will we get from losing our sea goods, losing our wildlife?” She fears that inevitable oil spills would destroy not only the land but their way of life. “In 25 or 30 years you won’t have much forest around [and] after there is no more oil to pass through the pipeline, they [Phenix] are going to leave and the community will have no fish in their streams. We inherited this land from our ancestors, and if we destroy this land we will leave nothing for our children and grandchildren but barren land, from which they can produce nothing.”
Phenix CEO Rick Wojcik claims that after promising that the pipeline would adhere to environmental guidelines, he received a letter from Watson consenting to the construction project. Watson fervently denies signing any letter and stands by the community’s opposition to the project.
This is not the first time that Watson has been engaged in such a fight. She was born in Monkey Point, and although she has studied and lived in many parts of the country, she returned there to set up a health clinic and to be an activist for the community against SIT-Global’s proposed “Dry Canal” railway project which is now progressing slowly. In 2001 she stated: “There has been a big fight between the CINN company and the community. The deputies and the ministers don’t talk to us. The Vice-Minister of the Presidency asked me why I am opposing the progress of Nicaragua. I said to her that, if she cared about the people, I would not have to be here. I said that this progress would not benefit the Rama people. We have an injunction in the courts against the ‘dry canal.’”
The Phenix Company is looking for funding from the World Bank to get their project underway. Commencement of the project is contingent upon a $2 million environmental study to determine the impact of SIT-Global and Phenix’s projects. Wojcik assures that the World Bank would not support an environmentally damaging project, proving that Phenix’s plan would not have detrimental effects on the environment.
Wojcik believes that the community of Monkey Point would actually benefit from the project, pledging that it would provide them with more employment opportunities and economic benefits. Wojcik claims that although initial work on the pipeline would be done by foreign workers the company plans on training Monkey Point residents and other Nicaraguans to work on the pipeline. Within three to five years he envisions all pipeline workers to be members of the local and surrounding communities.
Watson and other community members remain skeptical of Wojcik’s promise. They believe that advanced jobs would go to individuals outside the local community while Monkey Point residents would be left with menial if not dangerous tasks. Watson laments that community members “would be cleaning the floor or pushing wheelbarrows around…in exchange for their land.” In addition, she doubts that indigenous people of Nicaragua would gain any real economic benefits from the pipeline. She feels no reason to believe that Nicaragua would be any different from Venezuela, where the overwhelming numbers of impoverished citizens do not feel any benefit from being one of the world’s richest countries in oil.
The community’s hope now is to use their legal protection to prevent the project from advancing. With the “Demarcation Law Regarding the Properties of the Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Communities of the Atlantic Coast, Bocay, Coco and Indio Maiz Rivers” the Nicaraguan government officially recognized that Monkey Point and the surrounding lands belong to their indigenous inhabitants. Under this law, Phenix must conduct formal consultations with the community and fully disclose details of the project.
The law also affords the community the right to officially demarcate their ancestral lands by applying to the Nicaraguan government for a legal property title. Before the title can be attained, the government must set up the planned National Commission for Demarcation of Indigenous Lands (CONADETI) to oversee and facilitate demarcation applications. Demarcation would bolster Monkey Point’s claim to their land and assist them in warding off intrusion by Phenix or any other foreign company. César Paiz, a representative of the planned demarcation commission, says, "We know that behind many of the worst [land rights] conflicts there are powerful business interests, seeking to exploit the lands inappropriately. It is important now to get organized and seek support to enable the law to be properly implemented."
The Nicaragua Network, Nicanet, urges everyone to write to Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolaños expressing solidarity with Monkey Point residents and concern about the proposed pipeline project:
President Enrique Bolaños Casa Presidencial Managua, Nicaragua Fax: 011-505-228-9298
- 1. Inform President Bolaños that you are following the struggle of the Monkey Point community against Phenix’s pipeline.
2. Demand that he uphold Nicaraguan law by ensuring that the community is granted a full disclosure of Phenix’s plans through a legally-entitled consultation process.
3. Insist that the Nicaraguan government promptly establish the planned CONADETI commission to initiate the process of demarcating the community’s land.
Special thanks to Pearl Watson for providing information for this article.
