Minister Icaza: ‘Panama once again shows it knows how to hand over control of its most important asset’

Ilya Espino de Marotta has become the first woman to lead the Panama Canal in its 112-year history. She took office at a ceremony that also marked the departure of outgoing administrator Ricaurte Vásquez.

Canal Affairs Minister José Ramón Icaza said the transition took place 49 years after the signing of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties. He said that anniversary underscored the responsibility of every canal administrator and employee to honor the historic milestone through their work.

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Panama has much to thank you for, for a tenure that enabled the Canal to face and overcome some of the most complex challenges in its recent history.

Icaza presented the change in leadership as evidence of Panama’s institutional strength. The handover followed established rules and procedures, he said, while the canal’s governance model was designed to preserve its direction regardless of changes in government. He described the waterway as an institution managed with independence and integrity as the property of all Panamanians.

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Today, by decision of this Board of Directors, she becomes the first woman to lead the Panama Canal in its 112-year history, for the next seven years.

The minister thanked Vásquez for leading the canal for seven years and highlighted the challenges faced during his tenure. They included the pandemic, securing future water supplies, strengthening the route’s competitiveness and finding new sources of revenue. “Panama has much to thank you for, for a tenure that enabled the Canal to face and overcome some of the most complex challenges in its recent history,” Icaza said.

Espino de Marotta joined the canal more than 40 years ago as an engineer and became the first woman engineer in the Industrial Division’s shipyard. She later led engineering for the canal expansion program and became deputy administrator in 2020, also the first woman to hold that position. “Today, by decision of this Board of Directors, she becomes the first woman to lead the Panama Canal in its 112-year history, for the next seven years,” Icaza said. He added that her appointment reflected four decades of accumulated merit and was “the message Panama gives the world today.”

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You reach this position through merit accumulated over four decades. That is the message Panama gives the world today.