[Calusa]

1999 As you know, this year the United States turns the Panama Canal over to Panama. Well, this morning's Investor's Business Daily reports that Panama has contracted the management of the Canal out to a Hong Kong firm "with close ties to the Chinese government."

The implications of this management deal should be obvious. In case of war, it will greatly hamper the ability of the US Navy to get ships from one ocean to another quickly.

Couple this with the fact that China now has a military base on the US mainland. A couple of years ago, the Clinton administration sold the Long Beach Naval Air Station to the China Overseas Shipping Company (COSCO). COSCO is using the facility as a port, but anybody who thinks that the Chinese military isn't ready to make the fullest possible use of the base at a moment's notice is living in a fantasy world.End snip

So now the 'Independent' closet leftist Santos is ready to hand Colombia over to China on a silver platter. Precious.

[Ben Ficklin]

You got your story wrong on COSCO and the LB Naval Shipyard.

Cosco did want to expand their Port Of LB facilities but had no room to do, so they were going to move into the former Naval facilities.

That lathered up all the conspiracy kooks, so they made a change in plans.

Cosco's neighbor moved into the Naval Ship Yard and Cosco expanded onto the adjoining vacated property.

I can tell that you like conspiracies so let me tell you about one concerning this Columbia dry canal railroad. This railroad is just a small part of Plan Puebla Panama.

Plan Puebla Panama was conceived of by Mexican President Fox in 2000. The whole area from the Mexican State of Puebla down thru Panama would be integrated into a single free trade zone which would include building and integrating transportation infrastructure.

Many dry canals were proposed as part of this but it never went anywhere because no investors stepped up.

When Calderon replaced Fox, he revived Plan Puebla Panama and at that time Uribe put Columbia's northern state into the Plan and that is where this dry canal is located.

Not to be out done, after Fox proposed Plan Puebla Panama, South America also got in the act with IIRSA, which is a plan to build and integrate transportation infrastructure among the SA nations. They have made much more headway than Plan Puebla Panama.

There is mucho info and maps on these two plans to be found on the internet.