This article brings to light yet another theme we have examined thus far in our study of Latin American history. Foreign influence into Latin America tends to utilize a strategy of completely decimating land in order to maximize their profits. We saw this with US sugar companies in Cuba and with the mining and agricultural goods throughout colonial Latin America and now yet again this Chinese funded canal project seems to be following suit. As in McCook's reading, those who suffer the most of this neglect are the small, semi-subsistance farmers who rely on the consistency of the environment as their only source of food and income.