Panama as a Bellweather of U.S. Fortunes: the Storm Gathers
By William R. Hawkins Saturday, November 04, 2006 PANAMA AND THE TURNING TIDES OF HISTORY - Panama has been in the news recently for two events – a UN Security Council seat contest and the possible widening of the canal – that will bolster the status of this small Central American country, but which future historians will mark as further indicators of the decline of the United States. Panama has emerged as the state that will fill the Latin America seat on the UN Security Council for a two year term. After a deadlock in the General Assembly that had lasted through 47 votes, the foreign ministers of the contending states, Guatemala and Venezuela, agreed to withdraw and back Panama as a compromise. The contest had become highly political because the United States supported Guatemala over the leftist regime of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Chavez had referred to President George W. Bush as "the devil" in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly last month.
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Panama City, Oct. 25 (CNA) National Kaohsiung Marine University in southern Taiwan has signed an academic cooperation agreement with the International Maritime University of Panama on sharing maritime experience and training. Hu Jia-sheng, director of the university's Merchant Ship Seaman Training Center, is leading a delegation of the university's staff on a visit to Panama city. Hu signed the agreement with representatives of the Panama university Monday. He said his institution would offer training and assistance in such fields as sailing, machinery, aquaculture, mariculture, and the preservation and protection of the ocean and marine life. Hu said he believes that the cooperation would also help enhance diplomatic ties between Taiwan and Panama. Panama is one of Taiwan's major diplomatic allies in Central America. Taiwan's ambassador to Panama, Hou Ping-fu, said the Central American nation will need a great deal of talent in mariculture, architecture, machinery, computer science and languages after its voters approved a plan to expand the country's canal in a national referendum Oct. 22. Hou added that Taiwan can help Panama's government train maritime personnel and even provide scholarships. Taiwan plans to assist Panama in developing mariculture, particularly seaweed aquaculture, starting next year, Hou said. (By Ramon Huang and T.C. Jiang)
Work on an ambitious project to enlarge the canal of Panama including three new locks will begin next year making Panama the Americas’ most important logistics hub, announced Tuesday the water way’s General Manager Alberto Aleman Zubieta. Last Sunday Panamanians voted on a referendum which supported by a landslide the expansion project of the canal which is Panama’s main resource. Mr Aleman Zubieta said that towards the end of 2007, dredging and excavation will commence under the management, or subcontracting, from the Canal’s Authority, ACP, which is responsible for the administration of the canal. He added that the enlargement project which will allow post-Panama vessels through the water way is scheduled to be concluded by 2014, when the Canal will be celebrating its first century existence. The canal which was begun by French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps in the early XX century was finished and inaugurated by United States in 1914. The expansion project which includes three additional locks in the 80 kilometers long canal is estimated will cost 5.2 billion US dollars. This will be partly financed by raising tolls in one of the world’s most relevant water ways for global trade.
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Will Weissert for the 
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Last Sunday’s landslide support for expanding the Panama Canal is causing concern in Chile since the financing of the massive project has yet to be revealed. Chile is the overcrowded Canal’s leading client in Latinamerica and last Sunday the Panamanian people went to the polls on a referendum to support the 5.2 billion US dollars project. Those contrary to the widening of the canal and the construction of three new locks not only argued environmental reasons but also warned that cost estimates were “grossly” and deliberately underestimated given Panama’s limited access to international credit. Chilean exporters and ship owners favor the enlargement of the Canal which should put an end to the queuing and waiting costs, but fear that part of the 5.2 billion US dollars bill could begin to be collected through increased rates. Eugenio Valenzuela president of Chile’s Ship Owners believes that higher crossing rates before the expansion works actually begin would have a negative competitiveness impact for many Chilean export produce.
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Most people stayed home. According to official numbers released from the Electoral Tribunal, 1,205,055 eligible voters did not participate in the referendum vote yesterday. Of those who did vote, 693,660 voted "Yes" and 195,002 voted "No." The general feeling was that the referendum was a done deal months ago and it was going to win by a landslide anyway, so why bother? This was a low turnout by Panamanian standards.
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By Bill Faries Oct. 23 (
Here's the official results from the 
Man, that was great. I've had a poll running for about a month asking "Should Panama Expand the Panama Canal" and Panama Guide readers voted "Yes" 78.4% and "No" 21.6%. Those results almost exactly mirrors the actual results. Therefore, I hereby declare Panama Guide as an accurate barometer of local elections. We're 1 for 1. Check out the 
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Tomorrow thousands of Panamanians will go to the polls to decide the future of the proposal to expand the Panama Canal. Recent formal and informal polling indicates that the referendum will most likely be approved. The Panama Guide poll predicts 78.5% for and 21.5% against. International observers have arrived, have been briefed and are oriented and will be in place tomorrow to observe the voting process. The government has established an information center at the Atlapa Convention Center to gather the polling data and release official results to the public. People have updated their cedulas and all of those who are going to vote are duly registered. There is a moratorium on advertising for or against the referendum as of today. Starting at midnight no one can sell or drink alcohol and street demonstrations or protests are prohibited. Reporters from around the country are calling in to say that everything is ready. The polls open tomorrow at 7:00 am, and oficials expect to be ready to call the results by about 4:15 pm tomorrow afternoon. Everything is ready to roll...
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Would you be surprised to learn that it's a container ship that was built in 2006? The 
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Don't miss your chance to vote in the 
By Robert Wright, Transport Correspondent for the 
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By: Luis Alberto Castillo C. for the 
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