LatinNews Daily - 09 July 2024

*The administrator of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), Ricaurte Vásquez, has said that a ruling by Panama’s supreme court (CSJ) could permit the construction of a new reservoir to feed the Panama Canal – an initiative which he said would require the acceptance of inhabitants of the new site around the Indio River basin which spans a total of 580km² and is home to over 12,400 people living in some 231 villages. Vásquez was referring to a 3 July CSJ ruling which struck down a 2006 regulation prohibiting the waterway from expansion outside its traditional watershed. The CSJ ruling allowed a re-interpretation of the boundaries. Vásquez was cited by Spanish newswire EFE as saying that the cost of constructing a new reservoir would be in excess of US$1.2bn while the costs related to sustainability and attention to communities amounted to some US$400m. A press release by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) cites Óscar Ramírez, a member of the ACP’s directorate, as saying that it would take some six years to carry out the project.