re: What’s with this repeated mention of ‘eastern pacific’?
Corpus Christi is on the east coast of Texas, which is on the western side of the Gulf fairly close to the Panama Canal, which is the closest point to the western Pacific and that is only a few thousand miles to the Eastern-Pacific where the sub was a built. Or something like that. I guess.
The biggest question is, WHO was driving the sub. Mexicans?
Probably.
The west coast of the U.S. is the eastern Pacific.
But how would it get through the locks in the Panama Canal without being detected? They are not automatic, someone has to operate them, and in accordance with the traffic demand. And someone has to pay for the trip thru. It said this was a semi-submersible so it should have been visible to the operators of the lock. Maybe someone should ask them about that.