Torrijos Calls Upon Citizens to Go Vote
Sunday, October 15 2006 @ 06:40 PM EDT
Contributed by: Anonymous
Views: 1,125
(Source: La prensa) With just a few days remaining before the national referendum to decide the fate of the proposal to expand the Panama Canal, President Martin Torrijos called upon the people to get out and vote on Sunday 22 October. "I bet that we will have a sense of responsibility and that Panamanians will turn out to vote in mass, no matter how you choose to vote" said Torrijos, who has openly supported the proposal. "Go vote, my friends, exercise your right and show our children that we followed through, that we have a Panama that is more propserous and just after the 22nd of October" he said. Torrijos made his statements during a tour of La Chorrera, where he toured a road improvement project and handed out at least 500 land titles worth more than $2 million dollars. At the same event 269 scholarships were given to outstanding students valued at $68,430 and 30 certificates for a program called "Parvis Mejorado" worth $163,000 which will be used to repair houses in several areas of La Chorrera.
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By Adam Thomson in Panama City for the 
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According to engineer Harry Strunz, if the managers of the Panama Canal raise tolls an average of 3.5% every year for the next 20 years the canal will become non competitive in about 2013 after having analyzed of toll raises conducted by the Suez Canal. Strunz says that it will be more difficult to raise tolls after the work is completed in 2014 or 2015 because ships will opt to use the Suez Canal, and the Panama Canal will lose its economic support, leaving the Panamanian public with a great public debt. Strunz noted that according to ACP projections about Suez canal traffic (2005 - 2025) raised their tolls 3% in February of 2005. The next toll raises for the Suez canal will be 5% in 2015 and 5% in 2025. Strunz points out that the ACP plans to raise tolls 36% in 2015 compared to the Suez Canal that will have only raised their tolls 5%. Based on his he concludes that it will be cheaper for ships to use the Suez canal than the Panama Canal in 2015. According to Strunz the board of directors of the ACP are not reliable. The ACP responds that the Panama Canal offers a time advantage and a 23% total cost for maritime shipping compared to the Suez Canal for Panamax ships which will still remain in place after the canal is expanded.
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Guillermo "Billy" Ford was the Vice President of Panama from 1989 to 1994. He is a leader of Panama's Nationalist Liberal Republican Movement (Molirena) political party. He served as Panama's Ambassador to the United States during the Moscoso administration. He became the international symbol of resistance to the dictatorship of Manuel Noriega when, during a protest against Manuel Noriega, dignity battalions attacked his car, shot and killed his bodyguard and beat Mr. Ford with a metal pipe. This event was caught on video and played out in news sources around the world, bringing worldwide attention to the brutality of Noriega's regime. Yesterday Juan Carlos Varela, the President of the Panameñista political party in Panama, announced that the party is 
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On Sunday, 22 October 2006, Panamanians will go to the polls to decide the fate of the Panama Canal Administration's proposal to expand the Panama Canal and add a third set of locks. The expansion would allow for much larger ships to use the canal. Much of the excavation is already done, started by the United States in 1939 but then halted at the outbreak of World War II. Almost every important political leader in Panama has announced their support for the plan. There have been several groups that have split over the proposal because their leadership is against the proposal for political reasons but the main body of the organization is not in agreement with the leadership, such as in the case of the SUNTRACS labor union. When these splits have occurred the break is about 3 to 1 in favor of the expansion. The election is in four weeks, and polling indicates that those who were undecided are tending to make up their minds in favor of the expansion. (more)
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Cargo traffic through the Panama Canal will rise 42 percent in the next 20 years, the Panama Canal Authority (PCA) forecast in a report published on Monday. The PCA said it planned to raise the capacity to 520 million tons from 280 million tons to satisfy this demand, while warning that without such an increase canal traffic might reduce by 23 percent due to competitions from transpacific shipments, the U.S. intermodal system and Egypt's Suez Canal. According to the PCA, intermodal traffic would rise 65 percent while Suez traffic would surge 12 percent if the capacity increase of the Panama Canal is shelved. On Oct. 22, Panamanians are to vote in a referendum on the canal's capacity increase. The PCA, which took control of the canal on Dec. 12, 1999, estimates that the world fleet of Postpanamax boats -- those too big to pass the canal -- will reach 670 by 2011, representing a total of 4.6 million tons, or 37 percent of the world's container capacity. Source: Xinhua
This afternoon I had to go back to the clinics at the National Hospital to have the bandages changed on my foot after some minor ambulatory surgery last weekend. With my foot the size of a football I couldn't drive so I took a cab over and back. During the return trip I stumbled upon something that is becoming relatively rare - someone who is genuinely leaning toward a "no" vote on the upcoming referendum on the Panama Canal. Since we were going to be spending some time together in the car anyway, I struck up a conversation on the topic and tried to unravel his logic in order to better understand his position. I was actually delighted to find someone who was not a politician but who had some serious lingering questions about the project. He didn't say he was going to vote no in the referendum, but did indicate that he was solidly in the "undecided" column. Here's the gist of our conversation and the things he's thinking about.
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Another major political party in Panama, the National Liberal Republican Movement (Molirena) came out in support of the proposal to expand the Panama Canal over the weekend. Panamanians will go to the polls on 22 October 2006 to either approve or reject the plan. All of the political parties with large followings have voiced their support for the plan, and only fringe elements and small groups of radicals and antagonists are opposing the plan. This is just one more announcement from a smaller but still siginificant political party is yet another indication of the margin of support for the referendum, which by all appearances will pass by a landslide.
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"If you can 
