Thanks to Amazon we don't need no STINK' CANAL!
Posted on 01/14/2014 7:28:00 AM PST by Theoria
More than four years ago, when Panama awarded the lucrative contract to expand its inter-oceanic canal to a mostly European consortium, the United States was not pleased.
An American company whose bid was unsuccessful, Bechtel, thought the winning tender would barely pay for pouring the concrete and that the consortium would probably try to renegotiate the price at some stage during the construction process.
Some might argue that those American doubts have been justified, especially in view of the ongoing economic row between the European consortium and the Panamanian government agency that runs the waterway. The spat has threatened to bring work to a grinding halt, unless the two parties manage to resolve a $1.6bn (£1bn) dispute over cost overruns.
A series of WikiLeaks cables from the US embassy in Panama that were revealed by the Spanish daily newspaper El Pais in 2010 provided an inside view of the frustration that was felt in the US at not having been able to get that contract. Bechtel had been strongly backed by the US embassy, which was fully aware that the deal would have meant millions of dollars' worth of business for US suppliers.US ports expanding
Instead, the contract was secured by the GUPC consortium (co-led by Spanish company Sacyr and Italian Impregilo), which had offered considerably less money than other bidders but whose proposal, in the opinion of the canal authority, had the best value. GUPC stressed that the project would be built to the highest quality standards, but even so, the decision did not go down well in the US.
The cables also revealed that the US has retained a "fundamental interest" in the expansion project.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
I have a map of the survey made by the US Engineer office “Nicaragua Canal Survey 1929-1931” scale 1: 253,440.
The route Begins at Brito on the west on the Rio Grande and traverses east not far north of the Costa Rican Border, through Lake Nicaragua thence along the Rio SanJuan to just North of Grey Town. For much of the distance , the San Juan river is the international border.
What happened to the Monroe doctrine — is it still in the books?
I forgot — no nads to support or enforce it.
So the Free Trade Communists...who support Free Trade with Communist China...thought that by aiding the Communist Chinese financially...would mean they would give US companies contracts to work on the Chinese Canal in Panama?
The Chinese Canal in Panama is basically owned by the Communist Chinese....
Free Traders once again proving to be the most ignorant people on the planet....this nonsense is direct result of Free Trade Communists
Thanks Jimmy for giving Panama back to the "Panamanians" so that Latin America would finally start to love us.
Why the Colombians make a huge stink about that is hard to understand.
But wasn’t the original deal between the US and Panama, that the US would control the canal for something like 75 years, after which the US would relinquish control of the canal to Panama?
See # 26.
Look for Van Hallen's new hit, "Nicaragua"
The Monroe doctrine was never “on the books”. It was a foreign policy doctrine espoused by Monroe that was essentially the idea that the entire western hemisphere was an American sphere of interest and that European intervention in the Western Hemisphere would be opposed by the US. Obviously, Monroe lacked the power to implement this. There was still plenty of European intervention in the Western US, the Carribean, Alaska, and Latin America at that time. It became more of a reality after the Latin American countries gained independence, but even then was never really fully implemented, as the French invasion and occupation of Mexico in the 1860’s as well as Soviet actions in Cuba and Nicaragua attest.
My fury with Carter over this is tempered by the fact the Canal would have gone to Panama in 2002 if he had done nothing at all. We only had a 99-year lease on it.
This is very similar to Hong Kong, UK and China. Eventually Hong Kong was going to be repatriated to China no matter what the UK did.
First I’d heard about the option for another 99 years....
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html
Enjoy these live views of the canal.
If you pick the Miraflores Hires view, you can see the expansion canal to the far left.
The view is to the northwest towards the Atlantic(!?)
(some are surprised that the canal runs from the Atlantic souteast to the Pacific)
You’re correct = the “French Cut” was the abortive attempt pushed by De Lesseps. Col Goethals did an admirable job. “Path Between The Seas” by McCullough is a terrific story of how the Canal was built and the amazing advances in malaria and yellow fever control and treatment that came out of it by people like Dr. Gorgas. My daughter was born at Gorgas Army Medical Center in the old Canal Zone.
Thanks for the well-reasoned dissertation.
You forgot induced vomitting so one could do these things all over again.
On February 26, 1904, the Isthmian Canal Convention was proclaimed. In it, the Republic of Panama granted to the United States in perpetuity the use, occupation, and control of a zone of land and land under water for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation, and protection of the canal.
source: Wikipedia (I know!)
Regards,
I believe with an option for another 99.
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