Caribbean & Central America - April 2006 (ISSN 1741-4458)

As we went to press President Martí­n Torrijos was preparing to announce details of the project to widen the Panama Canal before submitting the plans to a referendum. The governors of the nine provinces were instructed to disseminate the message by means of public events. 

The Panama Canal Authority, which runs the waterway, commissioned 150 studies and reports on various aspects of the expansion project to help to inform the public debate on the issue. The final 55,000-page document would be made available to interested parties, Torrijos said. Congress will consider the reports and hold a vote before presenting a proposal for the referendum. 

The project favours the construction of two three-step locks at either end of the canal to allow for the passage of Post-Panamax ships. The government plans to fund the project, which will cost between US$5bn and US$8bn, by increasing tolls. The PCA said the Canal was more profitable than ever with the number of Panamax ships passing through in the first half of the fiscal year (October 2005-April 2006) up by 4.5% (127 ships) on the same period a year earlier.

Public opinion seems to be swinging heavily in favour of the expansion. In a poll, published in La Prensa on 9 April, 56% of Panamanians said that they would support the project while only 19% were against it. The percentage against the expansion is down by 10 points compared with a poll in March.