Denied use of cruise ship port for shipyard

The tourism sector and lawyers yesterday voiced their strong opposition to using the new Amador cruise port as a ship workshop or shipyard, something they describe as a deviation more allowed by Panama’s Maritime Authority (AMP).

They even questioned the administrator of the AMP, Noriel Araúz, for defending the job and allowing the shipyard’s activities in the port, which is intended to receive cruise ships and boost tourism in Panama.

Jorge Tovar, representative of the Association of Small Hotels of Panama, said that it is not possible to see with good eyes that industrial activities are developing in an area for tourist use such as the Amador Causeway and its new cruise terminal, where the state has invested more than 200 million dollars. “This is part of the deviation we see in the use of areas that have already been defined for the development of industries such as tourism.

We are still out of focus, and if it has any advantage as a result of a close relationship with a public official, that’s even worse,” said Tovar, referring to the friendship the AMP administrator has with the owner of one of the companies currently doing ship repairs in cruise port: Pablo Torres.

The Association of Small Hotels of Panama called on the Panamanian authorities to come up with a strategy to make the port, which is still under construction, the object for which it was designed; that is, for cruise ships.

Tovar emphasized that allowing these shipyards to take over these facilities can also cause deterioration, because the work equipment used by shipyards is very different from that used in the tourism industry. “At the end of the day, we don’t know who would bear the costs of repairing the damage caused to the cruise ship,” asked the entrepreneur.

Lawyer Harry Mitchell pointed out that once AMP allows business only on the principle of opportunism and with the use of state property, not considering that the contract by which this port was tendered is being violated.

Mitchell said this new port was designated specifically to serve cruise ships, and nowhere does it say it is for any other purpose, let alone an activity that requires special permits. He indicated that the position taken by AMP and its manager is not in accordance with the law, and the economic consequences will have a very negative impact on local tourism. More at a time when cruisers have already expressed their disagreements with AMP over the decision to force cruise ships arriving in Panama to refuel at a company, MONJASA, also linked to Pablo Torres. “If you turn this port into a shipyard, you’re not going to be able to market it fairly and eventually the cruisers will leave,” Mitchell predicted.

This media visited the facilities of the cruise port and found that all the infrastructure was used to repair the ships, Hellas Stream, Dalarma and Giga Haw. Socially, the owners of these boat workshops claim, because this harbor for cruise ships is “ideal” for these jobs.

The administrator of the Maritime Administration of Panama (AMP), Noriel Araúz, turned the tourism goal of this state port into the development of his own business for shipyards.

In the business that allows AMP, the name of Pablo Torres and his company Stward Inc. appears again as one of the beneficiaries. In this way, a port is used in the season where cruise ships do not come, which was also rejected by the tourism sector. Businessmen claim that another company, Talleres Industriales, owned by Lin Aroseman, a ship repair company, is taking over the entire Amador cruise port for two weeks.

Araúz admitted that AMP does not receive a single penny for the ship repair work carried out by these companies, it only requires that they do not exceed the capacity of the port structures based on their design, and that the companies offering shipyard services have a work permit.

Araúz said it was a commercial relationship between the parties in which the company AMP gave a concession to manage the cruise terminal, which invoices the use of the port as a repair shop.