*Nicaragua’s 92-member unicameral legislature, which like all institutions in the country is controlled by President Daniel Ortega’s Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN), has approved changes to Nicaragua’s constitution which allow the State to authorise concessions for the construction of the proposed ‘Gran Canal’ linking the country’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts. The approval of the changes, which is in line with a series of other amendments to the constitution currently being ratified by the national assembly, follows President Ortega’s unveiling of a new route for the Gran Canal in November 2024, in a bid to drum up interest from China. In 2013 the Ortega government awarded the US$50bn concession to build, operate, and manage the initiative to a Chinese company, Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company (HKND). However, the project failed to materialise and HKND has since been dissolved. In May 2024 Nicaragua’s legislature revoked the law (840) which granted the concession to HKND.