LatinNews Daily - 8 April 2025

*Panama’s comptroller general, Anel Flores, has said that an audit of Panama Ports Company (PPC), a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings, a Hong Kong-based and ultimately China-controlled company, had found irregularities. PPC owns two ports on the Panama Canal - Balboa, located in Panama City, and Cristóbal, Colón province, on the Canal’s Pacific and Atlantic sides respectively. In a press conference Flores listed various irregularities including the fact that PPC had not received required approvals from the comptroller general’s office regarding the extension in 2021 of the contract for the two ports, as well as various losses to the Panamanian State, including tax breaks saving US$850m of at least US$1.3bn that PPC owed. Flores announced he would be filing a complaint before the attorney general’s office against those responsible for renegotiating the contract in 2021. The audit was ordered in January following US President Donald Trump’s threat to reclaim the Panama Canal, citing Chinese influence, among other things. The audit’s findings cast doubt over the acquisition announced last month of the two ports in question by an international consortium led by US investment firm BlackRock Inc which is already subject to doubt amid Chinese opposition to it. Flores’ announcement comes as US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is in the country to attend a security conference.

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