Excerpts from an article by the BBC:
The Nicaraguan government and the company behind plans to build a canal linking the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean have settled on a route.
Nicaragua says it will break ground on the $40bn (£23bn) project this year. It said it expected construction to begin in December and to be finished within five years.
Skeptics point out that it took the United States 10 years to build the Panama Canal, which at 77km is less than a third of the length of the planned canal through Nicaragua.
Congressman Eliseo Nunez of the Independent Liberal Party called the announcement of the canal route “a propaganda game, a media show to continue generating false hopes of future prosperity among Nicaraguans”.