Word: panamas
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Ritter insisted in an interview that his reputation as a Noriega henchman is undeserved--that he remained in the Noriega government only to help negotiate the general's departure. As for the drug charge, he says that while he was Panama's ambassador to Colombia in 1986, he sold a car to an auto agency that he only later learned was owned by a drug lord...
...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...
Former commissioner MacMillan contends that Panama has badly neglected the military bases, ports and other facilities that have been placed in its charge, and shows reporters photos of abandoned Panama Railroad cars overgrown with grass and tropical vines. The railroad was handed over to Panama in 1979, and after falling into disuse, is now being privatized by a Kansas City, Mo., firm...
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...