According to a confidential cable sent by then-U.S. Ambassador to Panama Barbara Stephenson, Vice President Juan Carlos Varela classified the Panama Canal expansion project as a disaster when lunching with a visiting U.S. Congressional delegation on December 29, 2009. Varela called the consortium in charge of the project – led by Spanish and Italian firms Sacyr and Impregilo – ”very weak” and said that he had ”real doubts.”
“Facts seem to bear out what was said by the U.S. ambassador, in 2009, according to WikiLeaks.” says CentralAmericaData
In a message to Washington, then Ambassador Barbara Stephenson described Sacyr as “a bankrupt company sustained only by the Spanish government.”
It seems clear that the construction consortium lacks the financial resources to complete the work under the terms of the original contract, which brings to mind the criticisms of the award of the project to GUPC, who bid a much lower price than the other proponents, an amount which was said to be “not enough even to pay for the concrete.”