Word: canal
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Falcoff points out that "there are troubling rumors concerning Ritter's ties to drug traffickers"--a reference to testimony at Noriega's trial in 1991 alleging that Ritter had purchased a car for a Colombian cocaine dealer. Robert Pastor, who helped negotiate the Panama Canal treaties and who now teaches at Emory University in Atlanta, agreed that Ritter was a "surprising" choice for a job "where you want a person who stands for integrity...
...former Canal Zone, meanwhile, another diplomatic tiff concerned Panama's decision to award a contract to run the ports of Cristobal and Balboa to Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. in a deal that Ambassdor Hughes said was unfair to American bidders. And in a confused transaction that gives potential investors little confidence, the government leased land to Hutchison that was also needed by the Panama Railroad and the local airport authority. The resulting legal mess was only recently resolved...
Perez Balladares answers that the railroad was in poor repair and losing money at the time it was given to Panama. He thinks Washington wanted the venture to fail, "so they could say, 'See, they are not capable of running a railroad; how can they run a canal...
...President also sees U.S. machinations behind a report last year by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, commissioned in preparation for the handover, that listed more than 1,000 canal maintenance chores and equipment upgrades that needed quick attention. "The idea, I guess, would be to hand Panama a canal that would run into problems shortly afterward," says Perez Balladares. "Thank God, it was detected in time...
MacMillan dismisses the charge as "nonsense"--though the Canal Commission is now embarked on a $1 billion modernization program that encompasses most of the Corps of Engineers' recommendations...