We talk a lot about China buying up U.S. farmland and what a problem that is for our own national security. In recent years, many of us — though not enough if you ask me — have been warning about how much influence Beijing has over some other countries in the Western Hemisphere, and how it would be in our best interest to do what we can to stop that. It's the number one reason why I have no problem with Donald Trump doing away with Nicolás Maduro, allowing for the rightfully elected president, Edmundo González, to step in and take his place. I think this would create a domino effect throughout the region, but that's not what I'm writing about today.
What I do want to write about is something that no one beyond the Latin American media seems to notice: how much land China controls in Nicaragua. As of October 7, that number is around 1,482,632 acres, give or take — some sources say it's actually much, much higher. To put that in perspective, it's roughly the size of the state of Delaware. Chinese land ownership in the U.S. peaked at around 383,935 acres in 2021.
It all started in 2021, when Nicaragua's dictator, Daniel Ortega, cut ties with Taiwan and signed on to China's sketchy Belt and Road Initiative. China sweetened its side of the deal with the promise of foreign aid, investment, and trade deals. Meanwhile, the U.S. and other Western nations were sanctioning Ortega's Marxist regime. By 2023, the regime began granting land concessions to China, and as of this moment, China controls roughly 5% of the country's land. At least 43 concessions were made in two years, and there is no telling how many more there are to come.
Most of this land was handed over with mining rights attached. Nicaragua's main export is gold, though this could cover the exploration, extraction, and processing of silver, copper, and other minerals, as well. Some of these deals give the Chinese exclusive rights to the land for 25 plus years.
While the Chinese haven't actually started doing much mining, they are strongarming their way into the territory. According to La Prensa, Nicaragua's oldest independent newspaper and a longstanding critic of the Ortega regime, one of the Chinese companies, with the help of local police, "forcibly seized the BHMB Mining Palacaguina de Madriz mine site. This property legally belongs to BHMB Mining Nicaragua, a subsidiary of US-owned BHMB Inc. Furthermore, this company received, through a transfer, a concession from a mining company linked to the head of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Salvador Mansell, who has been sanctioned by the United States since November 2021."
La Prensa also reports that the speed at which these deals were made is unprecedented. Economist and political analyst Enrique Sáenz says that the goals for the Ortega regime are both economic, to expand its own wealth, and political, to strengthen the alliance with Beijing and help keep the wildly unpopular 79-year-old Ortega and his 74-year-old wife/VP, Rosario Murillo, in power for the long haul.
I'd add that the regime could use it for leverage, keeping the U.S. and the Organization of American States (OAS) out of its business, and it also fills a role that Maduro once played, back when he was able to bankroll the regime with subsidized oil. While Cuba remains heavily dependent on Venezuela's oil, Nicaragua has taken steps to separate itself, maintaining mostly diplomatic ties with Maduro.
In return, China gains access to a large portion of Nicaragua's gold and other mineral for decades to come, and it sets up camp in the Western Hemisphere, right in our own backyard. Managua, the country's capital, is about a two-and-a-half-hour flight, or just over 1,000 miles, from Miami.
Something else that's concerning is that the concessions weren't granted to well-known Chinese state-run mining companies. They were made to newly formed shell companies like Thomas Metal and Zhong Fu Development, which just popped up in the last couple of years and have no track record related to mining or anything else really. I assume that is to skirt U.S. sanctions, something China is quite skilled at doing — plausible deniability and all that.
Yet another issue with the concessions is their location. The most recent ones are in the protected Indio Maíz Biological Reserve and the Los Guatuzos Wildlife Refuge, both of which are along the country's border with Costa Rica.
According to the Nicaraguan media outlet Confidencial, whose journalists also live in exile, this is a "violation of the Law on the Communal Property Regime of Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Communities of Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast Autonomous Regions." Not only would Chinese activities here result in illegal mining, but they could also lead to cross-border problems, ranging from contamination and deforestation to "invasion" that could impact protected areas in Costa Rica, one of the United States' greatest allies in the region.
Local officials and the Nicaraguan people who live in these areas have been left in the dark as well, and have no idea how this might impact their lives or their communities. According to Fundación Andrés Bello, a think tank that focuses on Chinese activity in Latin America, "Official data from the Central Bank of Nicaragua shows a 20% increase in mining exports in 2024, reaching USD 1.39 billion. Yet, much of that revenue remains unaccounted for, as royalties are managed directly by the government without independent auditing. Local communities report widespread river pollution, deforestation, and loss of livelihoods, while critics warn of a 'new extractive dependency' on Chinese capital."
And to show you how quickly Ortega is buddying up to the CCP, as I was writing this article, Nicaraguan state media announced that Managua would have its very own "Chinatown" by sometime in 2026. The Chinese businessman who made the announcement said it would be a "mega project" and went on to spew propaganda about what a safe and lovely place Nicaragua is.
While there's not a whole lot of info about any of this reported in the MSM, the Trump administration is paying attention, it seems. On Monday, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced that its Section 301 investigation had concluded, and it determined that "Nicaragua’s acts, policies, and practices related to abuses of labor rights, abuses of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and dismantling of the rule of law are unreasonable and burden or restrict U.S. commerce."
Proposed actions include suspending Nicaragua's Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) benefits and/or applying tariffs of up to 100 percent on some or all Nicaraguan imports.
So, why should we care about any of this here in the U.S.? Well, China isn't just investing in companies here. By buying up land so close to our border, it's creating a major national security risk. What's to stop yet another Central American country from allowing the same? Economically, controlling the mining of important minerals gives China a leg up on defense, tech, and energy products.
The New Cold War is happening right before our very eyes, and far too many in the U.S. are not paying attention.
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