Pnma: Security at the Canal

The administration of the Panama Canal have been attempting to come to grips with possible threats of terrorism.

For example, the boat launch on the west wing of the Gatun Dam, the old Ski Docks, has been closed. So has part of the national park system along the canal, in parts of which a committed fanatic might lay in wait with a rocket launcher waiting for a shot at the right ship. There is a new tone of urgency in the canal administration’s drive to run the Pedro Miguel Boat Club out of their present premises.

The canal’s defense strategists have periodically had to think about new potential enemies, but the lists of things that are critical --- the locks, the dams and the generators --- and those systems that can go out without shutting the canal, tend to be more constant. The new threats would be against the same canal, with the same key components that circa World War I might have been vulnerable to an amphibious landing backed by battleship bombardment, or in World War II might have faced an aerial attack.