China Stakes Its Claim in Latin American Energy:

agricultural interests, one should be wary of predicting a Chinese takeover in the region. Chinese social and environmental impacts from investment and infrastructure projects have drawn strong objections from opposition parties, civil society, and indigenous groups. At the same time, the government-to- government nature of some of these interactions provokes resistance from the private sector. In the face of this opposition, some projects fail to ever reach completion. For example, in 2013, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced the construction of a $40 billion interoceanic canal funded by a Chinese firm. 66 However, very little concrete action was taken, except for the 87 environmental protests spurred by the plan. 67 Today, the canal plan is viewed as abandoned, and referred to as a “zombie project.” Furthermore, even if projects are well designed and well promoted, they sometimes are halted through protests organized by local communities. For example, in 2019, Peruvian Fuerabamba villagers cut off access to Chinese miner MMG’s Las Bambas mine, halting its exports. Why? Because of the company’s tendency to backpedal on compensation promises. 68 The operations of China’s largest oil project in Ecuador, the $1.47 billion Andes Project, are entirely located in the Amazon, primarily in the Oriente Basin and the

Yasuni National Park. The project has sparked fierce opposition from surrounding indigenous communities. 69 In order to ensure the success of its regional economic partnerships and investment projects, China must foster a rich network of economic, social, and political ties - something that traditional partners, including companies in Europe and North America, have already secured through decades of engagement. One example of concern about China’s snowballing influence in LAC energy came from Chile. Some members of the ruling party and the opposition from Chile’s Chamber of Deputies recently presented a bill that would allow Congress to block acquisitions of strategic assets by foreign, state-owned companies, Bloomberg reported. The move came after it was announced that the State Grid Corp. of China would pay $3 billion to take control of “over half of the South American country’s power distribution.” Miguel Mellado, one of the deputies supporting the bill, said: “The Chinese state is quietly building a silk road [referring to the BRI] that could strangle us in the future.” 70 And in Mexico, legislators have introduced a bill to nationalize the country’s lithium sector. Their plan is to declare all lithium deposits property of the state and

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