Free Republic

DARIEN GAP, Panama—The grind of heavy machinery breaks the silence of the Darién jungle, where the Pan American Highway ends at Yaviza in Panama. Construction workers have cleared towering trees to make way for a steel and concrete bridge mighty enough to withstand flooding from the Chucunaque River. An onsite worker for the construction company Cusa told The Epoch Times the construction project will cut 4 miles into the Darién jungle at a cost of $42 million and includes a second bridge crossing the Tuira River. That would leave some 55 miles to finish the Pan American Highway, also known...

In what is being called the “world’s worst traffic jam,” some 200 cargo ships are waiting to pass at the Panama Canal as, thanks to global climate change, the area experiences its worst drought in 100 years. As Futurism reports, the huge backlog has been growing for some time and might not get any better for a few weeks yet. The human-made passageway is famous not only as one of the world’s most impressive feats of engineering but as one of the most important trade routes on Earth. "..the flow of ships at the Panama Canal started at about 1,000...

Mexico is building the Interoceanic Corridor railway to compete with the Panama Canal and ease international trade. The new railway would aim to relieve the burden on the Panama Canal, which is struggling to receive shipments due to a drought. The Panama Canal has raised toll prices nearly eight-fold, and water levels at an all-time low make ship passage through the canal challenging. Mexico’s Interoceanic Corridor The $7.5 billion dollar project will stretch 188 miles across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The railway will move containers from ships to the train and transport them to ships on the other side that...

There are a lot of woolly, fabulous tales out there about Howard Hughes, the famously reclusive, eccentric billionaire. And the Wikipedia version of his life is not the only one that "needs additional citations for verification." The Martin Scorsese movie "The Aviator" recently advanced the images and legends of Hughes and his obsessive compulsions. Hughes officially died in April 1976, an emaciated, drug-addicted, long-haired, tragic, lonely old man who proved to some people money couldn't buy happiness. But not really, according to a new book, "Boxes: The Secret Life of Howard Hughes," by Douglas Wellman, assistant dean of the School...

Why shipping choke points like Panama are FUBAR and getting worse. Long, detailed explanation of all the problems.

For months, a withering drought has created major traffic jams at the Panama Canal. The drought, which may have been exacerbated by climate change, has left the canal’s water levels lower than ever, forcing Panama to let fewer ships through. The restrictions have led to delays, increased shipping costs, and uncertainty over the future of one of the world’s critical trade chokepoints. “This has fundamentally changed how shipping through the canal works,” said Soren Stokkebaek Andersen, a regional commercial manager at Leth Agencies, a shipping agency.

The worsening bottlenecks at the drought-stricken Panama Canal are pushing at least one US diesel shipper to sail around the tip of South America en route to Chile for the first time since 2020. The vessel Green Sky is hauling ultra-low sulfur diesel loaded at Citgo Petroleum Corp.’s Clifton Ridge terminal in Louisiana to Valparaiso, Chile, according to Bloomberg vessel tracking and Kpler. Rather than traversing through Panama, the vessel is headed down the eastern coast of South America toward the Strait of Magellan, the first such voyage for a cargo of Gulf Coast diesel since 2020, according to Kpler....

Two gas tankers crossed the Pacific, then U-turned within 10 miles of the Panama Canal, Bloomberg reported. An intense drought has lowered the canal's water level, limiting the number of ships that can pass through. That has created a massive backlog of ships waiting to cross, forcing some to seek alternate routes. Two gas tankers crossed the Pacific Ocean, but recently took a U-turn just short of the Panama Canal because of the huge traffic jam caused by low water levels, Bloomberg reported. The tankers, Pyxis Pioneer and the Sunny Bright, were within 10 miles of the canal before they...

On the face of it, America has little to fear from China's new deal to upgrade Cuba's power grid. The countries are already firm allies via their Communist leaders, Havana is under a diplomatic and economic embargo from Washington, and all efforts to mend ties between the two ended when Obama left office. But scratch the surface and what emerges is a picture of Chinese economic dominance in America's backyard that would be enough give any president sleepless nights. In fact, the deal with Cuba - signed this week as part of China's trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative - is...

PANAMA CANAL'S LESSON: U.S. MUST BUILD BRIDGES, NOT FENCES --- LA LECCION DEL CANAL DE PANAMA Last weekend's decision by Panama to embark on a $5.2 billion expansion of the Panama Canal should teach a lesson to the new crowd of U.S. Latin America bashers -- often disguised as immigration control advocates on cable television networks -- about how wrong their predecessors were in one of Washington's biggest debates over Latin America ever. I'm talking about the 1977 Panama Canal treaties, which turned over full control of the canal to Panama in 2000. Read the full column here, and...

Free Trade: If there was ever a referendum the whole world could celebrate, it might be Panama's huge canal expansion, expected to pass on Sunday. From Boston to Singapore, rarely have so many stood to gain so much. When Panama's 1.7 million voters hit the "yes" button for the $5.3 billion canal expansion, they'll put their fingers on a pivotal point that changes the course of history. President Martin Torrijos called the canal's biggest upgrade since its 1914 completion "vital" to his nation and energetically persuaded his cost-conscious countrymen to approve it. .... Panamanians were skeptical at first, but now...

PANAMA CITY, Oct 20, 2006 (AFP) - The Panama Canal is set for a major overhaul if voters Sunday approve a 5.25-billion-dollar plan to widen the strategic waterway to accommodate modern mega-ships. Proponents say the canal will reach capacity in 2012 and that its expansion is critical in the face of competition from other maritime routes. The government says the work would be financed by a hike in tolls, worth 1.2 billion dollars in 2005. Polls predict a victory of more than 70 percent in favor of the expansion in Sunday's referendum. "We are optimistic," said Rodolfo Sabonge, the director...

PANAMA CITY, Sep 30 (IPS) - On Oct. 22, Panamanians will head to the polls in a referendum to decide the future and possible expansion of the Panama Canal, the main economic driver of this country of three million people. The canal is expected to generate 1.4 billion dollars in the 2006 fiscal year, of which 560 million will go to the state coffers. According to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), the proposed expansion would increase these revenues to 6.23 billion dollars by 2025, boosting treasury contributions to up to 4.19 billion. If to this year's 560 million are added...

PANAMA will hold a referendum in three weeks to decide whether the Panama Canal will be expanded. However, Enrique Sanchez, manager of the Contracting Division of the Panama Canal Authority said yesterday that polls conducted across the Central American country, have shown overwhelming support for its expansion. If the project gets the green-light, it will be self financed at an estimated cost of US$5.25 billion. Gross revenue generated by the Canal for fiscal 2005/6 (fiscal year ends September 30, 2006), reached US$1.4 billion, with the Panamanian Government netting approximately US$600 million of that figure. "The Panama Canal has turned out...

This view is expressed in a new study that has forecast North American container port demand nearly double in 10 years with most pressure falling on Pacific Coast ports. UK-based Ocean Shipping Consultants predicts demand to increase by up to 85 per cent to 85.7m TEU over 2005-15, and by a further 31 percent to 112.3m TEU over 2015-20. Even an increased-risk/protectionist scenario, incorporating a significant downturn in GDP expansion over 2011-15, would yield a container port demand increase of 55 percent to 71.8m TEU over 2005-15, with 25 percent growth over 2015-20, to 89.7m TEU In its report Containerport...

A late 19th century idea has been resurrected to build a new canal in Nicaragua, at the same time Panama is planning to widen its own canal. Nicaraguan officials say next week they will announce their $20 billion proposal to build a canal linking the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans that would accommodate ships too large to use the Panama Canal, according to the Los Angeles Times. If it meets with the necessary approval by Nicaragua's Congress, the project would be a joint public-private venture financed by unnamed investors, Lindolfo Monjarretz, a spokesman for Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos, told the...

Panama is planning to build a deeper, wider Panama Canal to allow Communist Chinese super-containerships carrying cheap 21st century slave-labor under-market goods to have direct access to the Gulf of Mexico and key NAFTA/CAFTA ports such as Miami. In the shipping industry, Panamex container ships are defined as those that are able to fit through the 1,000-foot long and 110-foot wide canal. Typically, Panamex containerships were designed to carry 4,500 TEU (“Twenty Foot Units,” the length measurement of the standard ocean steel container). The first generation of post-Panamex container ships was built to carry up to 9,800 TEU. Today, a...

The girl of the Noriega General named with the consulate from Panama in Miami PANAMA - One of the girls of the former strong man of Panama, the Manual General Noriega, was named as diplomat with the consulate from Panama in Miami, announced the minister panaméen Foreign Affairs Samuel Lewis. His/her father is imprisoned there since 1990. Sandra Noriega "is a qualified person who has the right to serve her country", affirmed Friday the minister. The father of the diplomat directed Panama of 1981 to 1989, after death in an air crash of the president panaméen Omar Torrijos, father...

China poised to take over U.S. base at Ecuador's invitation Ecuador’s president has offered the Chinese government an airbase currently serving as one of the last U.S. military outposts in South America. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said during his recent visit to China that he would offer Beijing a lease on the Manta Airport, the presidential website reported last week. Currently, Manta is used by U.S. military forces for operations. The contract is up in 2009 and Correa will not renew it, a transport and public works ministry communications official told BNamericas. Correa said access to the air base is...

Ecuadorian right-wing Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated at a campaign rally on Wednesday. Fernando Villavicencio was reportedly shot in the head three times. A grenade was also found at the scene. WATCH: Quedó grabado el Momento exacto en que matan a Fernando Villavicencio!! pic.twitter.com/7kpqUzwzQ4 — Emergencias Ec (@EmergenciasEc) August 10, 2023 According to local media reports, supporters of Fernando Villavicencio managed to capture a suspect after the assassination. WATCH: Simpatizantes de Fernando Villavicencio lograron capturar a un sospechoso del crimen al candidato. pic.twitter.com/juqh67WlYk — Ronald Vinces (@RonaldVinces5) August 10, 2023 Additional footage of the immediate aftermath and chaos was...