Panama Canal’s first female administrator takes over as drought and Trump pressure mount

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Ilya Espino de Marotta took command of the Panama Canal on Monday, becoming the first woman to lead the interoceanic waterway since it opened in 1914.

Espino, a naval engineer by training, moved up from deputy administrator to the canal’s highest post, an ascent shaped by her oversight of the $5.25 billion expansion completed in June 2016. She now runs a maritime artery that handles nearly 3% of global maritime trade and serves as the economic engine of Panama.

Her appointment has been greeted in Panama as a milestone for women in an industry where executive ranks remain overwhelmingly male. Since the United States handed the canal over to Panama in late 1999, only three other Panamanians have occupied the administrator’s office.

Shortly before taking office, Espino told The Associated Press that her immediate priority would be the proposed reservoir on the Indio River in the canal’s watershed. The $1.5 billion project is designed to secure drinking water for roughly half of Panama’s 4 million people and to lay the groundwork for the canal’s future operation. The canal’s Board of Directors had previously put her in charge of the plan, which includes resettlement and environmental mitigation. It is the largest infrastructure undertaking since the expansion and is expected to be completed by late 2031 or 2032.

The reservoir is not without controversy. Some communities have protested, and the plan will require careful execution. Espino has argued that the bigger risk is doing nothing: if shipping customers conclude the canal lacks a long-term water solution, they could steer cargo toward competing routes.

That worry has become more immediate with another stretch of low rainfall linked to El Niño. Canal authorities recently limited the number of ships allowed to make the daily crossing between the Atlantic and Pacific, reviving memories of the severe dry spell that disrupted schedules and forced draft restrictions in 2023.

Espino’s first months in office will also be shadowed by politics. As deputy under outgoing Administrator Ricaurte Vásquez, she had a close view of the pressure applied by U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump, before and after taking office, accused Panama of allowing Chinese influence over the waterway and threatened to retake control, saying U.S. shipping companies were being treated unfairly. After Trump took office, Panama’s Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the port concessions at both canal entrances held by a Hong Kong-based consortium. The ruling followed a U.S. investment fund’s announcement that it planned to buy those and other ports; that transaction has since stalled.

Espino told the AP the next seven years will be about maintaining operations that are “efficient, neutral, and transparent.” Diplomatic questions, she said, are for the Panamanian state to resolve. How well she can hold that line may determine whether the canal emerges from this period as trusted as it has been for most of its history.