ALBA funds to help protect Lake Nicaragua (NicaTimes)

Submitted by dixietraveller on 13 May, 2008 - 05:26.

By Blake Schmidt Nica Times Staff Socialists may have waved red flags as far back as the 19th century, but Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's plans for 21st century socialism in Nicaragua look a bit more green.

Chávez's alternative trade and financing pact with leftist Latin leaders, known as ALBA, is releasing $2 million to fund research to protect Central America's largest body of water, Lake Nicaragua, according to Nicaragua's environment minister, Juana Argenal.

The feasibility study is part of a larger $66 million plan to clean up the lake and reforest large swaths of woods that have been cut in the lake's basin in the past two decades, according to the minister.

For the complete article, go to http://www.ticotimes.net/dailyarchive/2008_05/0513082.htm