NGA Tearline: China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Latin America

Hydropower in Ecuador - a Case Study, in Collaboration with Authors from the College of William & Mary

This Tearline article from the College of William & Mary’s geoLab discusses findings from a project which utilizes open-source data collection and imagery analysis to study the impacts of Chinese development financing in Latin America and the Caribbean. The article examines evidence of eight hydroelectric power projects and/or dams in Ecuador in order to gain an understanding of Chinese actions and hypothesize Chinese intentions in the region.

In contrast to their findings on Belt and Road Initiaitve hydroelectric power projects in Bolivia, in Ecuador, this report identifies fewer problematic environmental impacts in the majority of Chinese projects, with several accompanied by substantial local community development initiatives. Included via this narrative are 160+ structured data points on BRI projects throughout Latin America.

For this report NGA Tearline collaborated with authors from from the College of William & Mary: Matthew Crittenden, Caroline Morin, Remington Fritz, Sophie Pittaluga, Emily Maison, William Weston, Kaitlyn Wilson, and Asha Silva.

Read more of this intelligence report at Tearline.mil.


What is NGA Tearline?

NGA is partnering with expert private groups to grow public-facing, authoritative open source intelligence on various strategic and humanitarian intelligence topics that tend to be under-reported within long-form format.

This authoritative open source content will be cited for internal purposes and it will grow public trust by increasing transparency around shared public-private interest in various strategic and humanitarian intelligence topics that are fit for public consumption.

Learn more about NGA Tearline.