PANAMA CITY (AP) - Work on the ambitious Panama Canal expansion project was halted Wednesday after talks broke down on how to settle a dispute over $1.6 billion in cost overruns.
Panama Canal Authority Administrator Jorge Quijano told a news conference the stoppage will give authorities time to analyze how to proceed on the project to widen the canal.
"I don't even want to suggest that the next steps will be easy or risk-free," a visibly angered Quijano told reporters in Panama. "What I do want to make clear is that we will not yield to blackmail."
The Panama Canal Authority and the Spanish-led construction consortium leading the expansion blame each other for the overruns. They were negotiating how to pay for the unplanned extra costs when talks broke down.