From: "Phil Payne" 

> The confirmation hearings could be fun - Ortega is back in power after
> democratic elections that even US observers believe were fair.

And things could get fun down there:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6069022.stm

"Opinion is divided on whether Nicaragua's $18bn canal project
represents an unrealisable pipe dream - or a grand design from which one of
the world's poorest countries will reap huge rewards."

IMO it makes more sense than a Panama enlargement - it provides
geographical, geological and political resilience and also price
competition within the current Panama loading gauges.

The only reason the USA might oppose it is political, and there's not much
left in the influence account.

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