28 Years of Unfulfilled Concessions, Litigation, and State Omission: Panama’s Amador Causeway
Pictjured below are the islands of Amador—Naos, Perico, and Flamenco—They have been the site of nearly three decades of concessions marked by breaches of contract, litigation, unfinished projects, and questions about state oversight.
The “Amador” situation refers to the prolonged urban, legal, and environmental failures on the Amador Causeway in Panama. Almost three decades after the former U.S. military base reverted to Panama, it remains hindered by a pattern of state negligence, expired concessions, unauthorized developments, and millions in uncollected debt. Key failures and systemic issues plaguing the Causeway include:
- Unfulfilled Concessions & Debt: Many developers were granted lucrative rights to turn the prime real estate into a tourism and urban showcase. Years later, several operators have failed to complete their promised megaprojects, left structures abandoned, and accumulated massive debts in unpaid canon fees to the state.
- Litigation & Legal Deadlocks: Attempts by the Panamanian government to cancel or reclaim non-performing contracts frequently become bogged down in years of costly litigation. Bureaucratic delays prevent the state from legally resolving the disputes or transitioning the land to more productive use.
- State Omission & Environmental Damage: Persistent institutional inertia has allowed these broken contracts to survive multiple government administrations without penalty. This neglect has allowed for unauthorized, irregular, or outright illegal land filling, raising serious environmental concerns and altering the original layout designed for the area.
