Central America
Audit Exposes Major Breaches in Panama Canal Port Concession, $300 Million Owed to State
The Comptroller General of Panama, Anel Flores, stated on Monday that the audit initiated last January on the Chinese company CK Hutchison’s subsidiary, which operates two ports around the Panama Canal, has revealed a series of breaches of contract, a multi-million dollar debt with the State, and irregularities in the automatic renewal of the concession.
“More than 300 million (dollars) are owed to us due to breaches in the contract,” Flores said, referring to Panama Ports Company (PPC), which operates the Balboa and Cristóbal ports located at the Pacific and Atlantic entrances of the Canal, respectively.
PPC has managed Balboa and Cristóbal, two of the five ports around the Canal, since 1997, when it was granted a 25-year concession contract that was automatically extended for another 25 years in June 2021, amid accusations of alleged corruption and unfavorable conditions for the Panamanian State, which holds a 10% stake.
In a press conference surrounded by auditors, the comptroller made a lengthy list of the unfavorable results for the Panamanian State from a modification to the concession conditions made in 2002, during the government of Mireya Moscoso (1999-2004).
These changes, which among other things eliminated a 22 million-dollar annual fee to the treasury, left the State with a fee based on container entries and included a series of tax exemptions, allowing the treasury to lose “about 1.2 billion dollars over two decades, at a rate of 55 million dollars per year.”
“This situation is not the company’s fault,” Flores said, “but rather the fault of some ‘bad Panamanians’ who negotiated the concession contract very poorly.”
The automatic renewal of the PPC concession approved by the Board of Directors of the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) “did not meet all the legal requirements and also lacks the endorsement of the General Comptroller’s Office,” something the law mandates, Flores emphasized.
Central America
El Salvador to host World Cup qualifiers vs. Guatemala and Panama at Estadio Cuscatlán
El Salvador’s national football team will host its final round World Cup qualifying matches against Guatemala and Panama at Estadio Cuscatlán, the honorary president of the National Sports Institute (INDES), Yamil Bukele, announced Thursday via a statement on his X account.
The official explained that this decision comes after the American rock band Guns N’ Roses, originally scheduled to perform at Estadio Cuscatlán on Saturday, October 4, will now hold their concert at Estadio Jorge “El Mágico” González. This change allows both of La Selecta’s qualifying matches to be played at the “Coloso de Monserrat.”
“After a series of efforts and in response to popular demand, we are pleased to announce that our senior national team’s CONCACAF World Cup qualifying matches next October (Oct. 10 vs. Panama and Oct. 14 vs. Guatemala) will take place at Estadio Cuscatlán,” the statement reads.
Bukele also thanked the event promoters and the band for agreeing to the stadium change. “We sincerely thank Guns N’ Roses and StarTicket for agreeing to move the concert originally scheduled for October 4 at Estadio Cuscatlán,” the statement adds.
Additionally, Bukele expressed gratitude to the FESFUT Regularization Commission for their efforts with CONCACAF to make this possible, and he urged fans to stay tuned to official channels to purchase tickets and support La Selecta in their World Cup qualifying campaign.
Central America
Honduran president Xiomara Castro suspends activities due to influenza
Honduran President Xiomara Castro announced on Thursday that she has “temporarily” suspended her public activities due to a severe influenza virus.
“A strong influenza virus requires me to rest, trusting that I will be fully recovered for the grand celebration of our National Independence Day” next Monday, Castro stated on the social media platform X.
The president had planned to participate in several inaugurations across the northern, central, and eastern regions of the country throughout the week. She added that “these events will be rescheduled for new dates.”
Central America
Nicaragua’s government expels bishops, priests, and nuns in religious persecution
At least 261 religious figures, including the president of the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference, Carlos Enrique Herrera, have been expelled as part of the persecution by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo’s regime against the Catholic Church, reported the NGO Colectivo Nicaragua Nunca Más in its report Faith Under Fire.
The report details that among those expelled are bishops Silvio Báez, Rolando Álvarez, Isidoro Mora, as well as the Apostolic Nuncio in Managua, Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, along with approximately 140 priests, over 90 nuns, ten seminarians, and three deacons from different dioceses in the country.
“Since the expulsion of Nuncio Sommertag in March 2022, relations between Nicaragua and the Vatican have significantly deteriorated,” the NGO noted.
The report also documents the closure of 5,609 non-profit organizations, of which 1,294 were religious, including churches, universities, schools, clinics, and humanitarian organizations. Most of these had their assets confiscated by the Sandinista government. Additionally, the telecommunications regulator TELCOR shut down 54 media outlets, including 22 religious radio stations and TV channels.
Repression has extended to other religious denominations, with forced disappearances and criminalization of evangelical pastors, control over temples, media censorship, fiscal pressure, property confiscation, and the cancellation of legal status for the Moravian Church. Pastor Rudy Palacios remains in detention as part of this pattern of persecution.
The NGO emphasized that churches, especially the Catholic Church, played a key role in the 2018 national dialogue, denouncing abuses and providing refuge to injured protesters, which fueled the government’s hostility.
In 2023, Pope Francis described Ortega’s regime as a “blatant dictatorship”, to which the Nicaraguan president responded by dissolving the Society of Jesus and labeling the Church as a “mafia” and “anti-democratic.”
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