ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Nicaragua had big plans to build a $50 billion shipping canal across the Central American country, perhaps big enough to rival the Panama Canal. Now the project is on hold. The Chinese businessmen backing the project had deep financial losses this year, and opposition to the canal is growing among many who fear it will destroy the country s natural resources. Here s NPR s Carrie Kahn.
CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: The main man in the Southern Nicaraguan town of San Jorge is Rafael Angel Bermudez. To find him, just ask anyone for El Escuelita.
RAFAEL ANGEL BERMUDEZ: (Foreign language spoken).
KAHN: That s me. I m one of a kind, at your service, booms Bermudez. Now 60, he got his nickname back in the 1970s when he ran a training school for guerrilla fighters during Nicaragua s revolution. These days, he s leading the fight in his small town against the massive canal backed by President Daniel Ortega.