NOTE: The following is the second part of a fictional take on innovative communities that could potentially be created in many parts of the Western Hemisphere. Or the world, for that matter.
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The China threat turns into a silver lining
Initially, the Mega-Rotondas were not meant to be as large as they eventually became. The original plan called for them to be small, but part of closely tied geographic groups made up of other small, circular, mixed-use communities, housing industrial plants, residential areas, and a commercial hub. They were to be built in undeveloped regions, close enough to water and potential alternative energy resources, and not too far from the main ground transportation arteries of the host country. According to that original strategy, there would be less risk building just one small Mega-Rotonda first and adding more of them in the same area as the need arose. But that plan was soon tweaked, once the U.S. Government decided to participate in the project. It did so for different reasons.
By the mid-twenty-twenties, China’s inroad in Latin America had gone from small commercial investments here and there to a massive takeover of major industries in several countries in the area. With plenty cash on hand, China’s modus operandi included the bribing of political officials and other corrupt folks, focusing its efforts on autocratic nations like Cuba and Venezuela, but spreading its wings from the U.S.-Mexico border to the most southern point in the Western hemisphere. To solidify its hold on the region, in 2026, China was about to begin the construction of a second transisthmic canal in Central America. It was to be wider than the Panama Canal and capable of allowing ships to efficiently travel from one ocean to the other.
The U.S. Government saw China’s encroachment as a threat to U.S. security and its economy, but also to its centuries-old hegemony in the region. It thought of unearthing and asserting the old and worn, and often loathed Monroe Doctrine, but that impetus went nowhere. Times had changed along with the international balance of power. The point of equilibrium in the scale had shifted. China was by then on a par with the United States, economically and militarily. Besides, investments from that Asian nation were welcomed by many in Latin America. After all, the United States had not only neglected the area for close to two centuries but had also intervened often and at will in the internal affairs of some of those countries. It had also, in the past, pillaged and plundered the natural resources of that region, flagrantly sucking its copper and other minerals, as well as oil, from its soil and its subsoil.
As the Chinese economic hold on Latin America grew, the U.S. Government decided counteract that advance, formulating a short and long-range strategic slash economic plan for the region. Unfortunately, no one in the proper places in government had the necessary vision to come up with a viable solution to the conundrum. After all, to most of those government folks, Latin America was just an extension of Mexico. But when word got out about the Mega-Rotondas project, which was still on the drawing board at the time, the U.S. Government jumped immediately on the opportunity to take part in it.
Adding such a colossal partner to a visionary investment scheme, which had been often called a “Utopian dream,” helped recruit other participants, mainly multinationals. Before long, huge corporations like John Deere, Caterpillar, General Electric, and others were on board. Soon after that, the project evolved into a much larger scale plan that included building roads, power plants, electrical grids, and other infrastructure in the vicinity of the first Mega-Rotonda. It was to be located in El Salvador, but near the border area with Guatemala and Honduras. Instead of starting with just one small circular community, the plan now called for a supersized Mega-Rotonda, with agricultural fields surrounding it and additional amenities inside of it.
By the time the first edition of the planned community was completed near the northern corner of El Salvador, all the work that had gone into building it and adding the planned infrastructure, had jump-started not only the regional economy near the first Mega-Rotonda, but of the entire nation. It had also been a financial windfall for U.S. and Central American businesses. More on those gains in future columns.
NEXT: The Mega-Rotondas, a Boon to American Retirees.
AUTHOR: Pedro Chávez