Things have not been going very well for the Martinelli administration this past month and the leaks from the U.S. embassy are not making it any easier.
This from BLOOMBERG
Panamanian Vice President Juan Carlos Varela called the Panama Canal expansion a “disaster” after a group led by Spain’s Sacyr Vallehermoso SA won a $3.1 billion contract to accommodate larger ships, a confidential U.S. diplomatic cable said.
The cable, released by WikiLeaks and published today in Madrid’s El Pais newspaper, said that Varela expressed concerns that Sacyr is in “deep financial trouble” and may not be able to complete the work.
“The Canal expansion project is a disaster,” the cable cited Varela as saying at a lunch with U.S. Ambassador Barbara Stephenson on Dec. 29, 2009. “In two to three years, it will be obvious this is all a failure.”
The ambassador’s office had “provided relentless advocacy” for Bechtel Group Inc., the largest U.S. engineering company, in its failed bid to win the largest contract for the $5.25 billion canal expansion, according to the cable.
Sacyr is working with Italy’s Impregilo SpA to build a third set of locks that will allow bigger ships to traverse the canal by 2014. The contract was awarded in July 2009.
The El Pais article had no response from Sacyr on the cables. In August, the company called the canal bidding process “exemplary,” according to today’s El Pais story. Calls and e- mails by Bloomberg News seeking comment from Sacyr and Varela’s offices outside of business hours weren’t returned.
The Panama Canal Authority, in an e-mailed response to the article, said as the waterway’s operator it “shields” itself from any outside pressure.
Expansion of the 80-kilometer (50-mile) canal, which connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, remains on schedule after heavy rains caused the waterway’s first closure in more than 20 years, Alberto Aleman, the canal’s chief executive officer, said in an interview on Dec. 13.
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