PANAMA CITY (AP) — Naval engineer Ilya Espino de Marotta takes the helm Monday as the first woman to lead the Panama Canal administration, stepping into the role at a challenging time for the vital maritime route.
Buoyed by her leadership of the multi-billion-dollar expansion project last decade, Espino moves up from deputy administrator to take full command of the canal. Only three other Panamanians have held the position since the United States handed over the interoceanic waterway in late 1999.
Her appointment to the canal’s top post is already seen as a symbol of women's capability for executive leadership roles in the industry. The canal serves as the engine of the Panamanian economy and handles nearly 3% of global maritime trade.
Shortly before taking office, Espino told The Associated Press that her priority would be advancing the project to build a reservoir on the Indio River within the canal’s watershed. The $1.5 billion project aims to secure drinking water for 50% of the Central American nation’s 4 million people and to support the future operation of the canal, opened by the U.S. in 1914.
The canal’s Board of Directors had previously appointed her to lead this $1.5 billion plan, which encompasses community resettlement and environmental considerations. It is the largest project since the waterway’s expansion, which opened in June 2016 at a cost exceeding $5.25 billion. Officials expect the reservoir to be completed by late 2031 or 2032.
For Espino, the goal is to guarantee future water supplies without compromising reliability in the eyes of the shipping industry. If customers perceive that the canal is not seeking a long-term water solution, they could shift their cargo to other routes.
That project, which has sparked protests from certain communities, is taking on greater significance as the canal faces another period of low rainfall caused by the El Niño phenomenon, which recently led waterway authorities to restrict the number of ships making the daily crossing between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
As the second-highest-ranking official at the canal serving under outgoing administrator Ricaurte Vásquez, she experienced the tension caused by complaints and warnings regarding the waterway voiced by U.S. President Donald Trump both before and after he assumed office.
Trump threatened to retake control of the canal, citing Chinese influence over the waterway and claiming that U.S. shipping companies were being treated unfairly.
The country’s judiciary ruled unconstitutional the port concessions at both entrances held by a Hong Kong consortium. That ruling followed the announcement of a planned acquisition of those and other ports by a U.S. investment fund, a deal that has since stalled.
Espino told the AP that her responsibility over the next seven years at the helm of the canal will be to maintain operations that are “efficient, neutral, and transparent.” She said that diplomatic matters are the responsibility of the Panamanian state.
Incoming Panama Canal Administrator Ilya Espino de Marotta, center, attends an international financial summit in Panama City, Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A cargo ship transits the Panama Canal after authorities announced a reduction to daily transits due to forecasts of El Niño conditions in Panama City, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Incoming Panama Canal Administrator Ilya Espino de Marotta speaks during an international financial summit in Panama City, Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
PARIS (AP) — Four people including two men linked with France’s extreme right stood trial in Paris on Monday over the killing of former Argentina rugby player Federico Martín Aramburú.
The trial took place more than four years after Aramburú was shot dead in March 2022 and a verdict is set for Sept. 25.
Loïk Le Priol, 32, is being prosecuted for murder, while Romain Bouvier, 35, faced charges of attempted murder. They face the possibility of life imprisonment.
Bouvier and then Le Priol gave their names to the court at shortly after 2:40 p.m. local time at the Palais de Justice in Paris.
The 42-year-old Aramburú, who played 22 times for Argentina, was killed when leaving a bar in Paris along with his friend Shaun Hegarty, a former New Zealand rugby player. They had traveled to the capital to attend a Six Nations Championship match.
Le Priol’s former girlfriend, 29-year-old Lyson Rochemir, who drove Bouvier to the scene of the shooting, faced a possible life sentence for complicity in attempted murder. She was also present on Monday.
A fourth defendant faced up to three years in prison for concealing evidence in order to protect one of the shooters.
Bouvier and Le Priol had been banned from seeing each other following their convictions for aggravated assault against a former president of a far-right student association in 2015. As members of the same organization, they said they had wanted to humiliate him because he “boasted about having assaulted women.”
On March 19, 2022, shortly after 5 a.m., the two former rugby players arrived at a bar in Paris’s Latin Quarter, Le Mabillon. They sat at a table next to the one occupied by the far-right activists. Everyone was under the influence of alcohol, the investigation showed.
Although the initial conversation appeared cordial, things quickly deteriorated and insults were exchanged. Le Priol allegedly told Aramburú: “You’re going to shut up, otherwise I’ll shoot you and then I’ll (expletive) your mother.” The defendants dispute that these words were spoken.
A fight then broke out. The bar’s bouncer intervened, and at around 6 a.m., the two groups went separate ways. According to witnesses, the two far-right activists were “furious.”
Together with Le Priol’s former girlfriend, who was driving their Jeep car, they set off in search of the rugby players, according to Le Priol, in order to “sort things out.”
Surveillance footage showed the two former rugby players walking down the street toward their hotel. Hegarty had stopped to get some ice cubes to relieve the injuries he had sustained during the fight at the bar.
Bouvier was the first to spot them while he was in the Jeep with Rochemir. He fired four shots at Aramburú, two of which struck and wounded him. Le Priol then arrived running and fired six shots into his back. Four hit him, two of them fatally. The Argentine collapsed into Hegarty’s arms.
Le Priol and Bouvier admitted firing the shots but deny having any intention to kill. Le Priol described his actions as “a pure reflex,” explaining that he “wasn’t himself,” that he “wasn’t there,” and that he “was in Africa.”
A former soldier, he had served in Mali, Niger and Djibouti, where he allegedly strangled and assaulted a prostitute. He was repatriated to France in 2015 because of a post-traumatic disorder, and his military contract was terminated in 2017 after he was charged with aggravated assault in connection with the October 2015 incident.
From the very first day, investigators knew who was responsible for Aramburu’s death, as the events had been captured by several surveillance cameras.
Rochemir was arrested on the same day, March 19. Le Priol was arrested three days later while attempting to cross the border between Hungary and Ukraine. Bouvier was arrested on Oct. 23, 2022, in Sablé-sur-Sarthe, in Western France.
Aramburú, married and the father of three, settled in the French Basque Country at the end of his career in 2012, having played for Biarritz, Perpignan, Dax and Glasgow in Scotland.
He helped Argentina finish third at the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
Last Saturday, Argentina’s players warmed up before a match against Australia wearing T-shirts with “Justicia por Fede” (Justice for Fede) written on them in his memory. Argentina’s rugby federation also called for justice to be served.
See AP’s full rugby coverage here
Argentin's captain Pablo Matera, wearing a T-shirt that read in Spanish, "Justice for Fede," in memory of former rugby player Federico Martín Aramburú, who was murdered in Paris, France on March 19, 2022, prior a rugby test match between Argentina and Australia in Mendoza, Argentina, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
File - Argentina's Federico Martin Aramburu, center, runs with the ball during their Rugby World Cup Group D match between Argentina and Georgia, in Lyon, France, on Sept.11, 2007. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)
