Panama is preparing to officially open its canal this weekend to far bigger cargo ships after nearly a decade of expansion work aimed at boosting transit revenues and global trade.
Bribery, graft and dirty politics are all too common in Latin America, but a noxious combination of the three has dogged the Central American dynamo in what ought to be its finest hour. And unless Panama can shake the curse, its glory may prove fleeting.
MADRID, Spain – Builders of a massive, trouble-plagued expansion of the Panama Canal said Thursday they will make repairs after authorities there said it had sprung a leak.
Cuba had argued that the weapons were "obsolete" arms which the communist island had sent to Pyongyang, North Korea, for repair. But the find raised concerns about Cuba's military cooperation with North Korea.
PANAMA CITY – Water will start rushing into the newly expanded Panama Canal on Thursday in one area that was widened, ahead of the waterway's April 2016 re-inauguration.
The main contractor consortium placed the last of the project’s 16 lock gates on Tuesday. With the expansion, so-called Post-Panamax ships measuring over 400 meters long and 50 wide, the size of four football fields, will be able to go through the canal.
The new terminal is set to quadruple the port of MoÃn’s current capacity. It will be the largest of its kind in Central America, designed to receive so-called Post Panamax ships — cargo vessels that are too big to fit through the existing Panama Canal.
