LatinNews Daily - 31 July 2025

*Panama’s comptroller general, Anel Flores, has announced that his office has filed two complaints with the supreme court regarding the contract held by Panama Ports Company (PPC) – a subsidiary of Hong Kong-headquartered CK Hutchison Holdings that owns two Panama Canal ports and which has been at the centre of recent tensions between Panama and the US. The complaints follow Flores’ 7 April announcement that an audit of PPC had found irregularities in the 2021 extension of its contract to operate two ports on the Canal – Balboa, in Panama City, and Cristóbal, Colón province, on Panama’s Pacific and Atlantic coasts respectively. Flores said yesterday that he was seeking for the contract to be declared void and unconstitutional as it “contained many irregularities” and “was not only a bad contract, it was one-sided, abusive, and went against the country’s interests”. This development risks further complicating a proposed deal for a US-led consortium to purchase the two ports. The deal with the US-led group, headed by investment firm BlackRock, was already under doubt after Hutchison announced this week that it is seeking a major Chinese investor to join the deal – a move that would go against the US government’s efforts to reduce Chinese influence over the Canal. Tensions over the ownership of the ports come as the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) yesterday announced plans to invest over US$8.5bn in the Canal over the next decade on modernisation works and to improve competitiveness and sustainability.

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