Since entering office in January, Donald Trump’s repeated threats to seize control of the Panama Canal, a critical passage for global freight traffic, have dominated headlines around the world. But two hours west of Panama City, 12,000 locals have a more pressing concern: their government plans to flood their lands and relocate them to create an artificial lake to ensure water supply to the canal.
“Tell the president to leave us alone. Does he know everything we are going to lose: the land, the crops, the homes? We are worried,” says Elizabeth Delgado, a resident of Limón de Chagres, a community on the banks of the Indio River that is the focus of the planned damming project. Along the river, the Delgados and roughly 500 other families face seeing their homes submerged.
