That is, if you don't mind seeing your money tied up or lost. The promoters of the Caribbean Key development project at the Atlantic side's former Fort Randolph are facing criminal charges and a whole slew of civil suits. Led by Tony Domínguez, who was Immigration director during the Endara administration, a group of Taiwanese and Panamanian investors pulled strings with the Moscoso administration to grab the rights to develop the area.

However, the Nam Kwong Group, an investment consortium based in the People's Republic of China, already had the concession and they're fighting back. Domínguez and several others are now facing charges of trespassing and falsification of public documents and Colon's civil court dockets are snarled up with this dispute.

There are other interests at play. The centerpiece of the project is another cruiser port, in a town where Colon 2000, the Port of Cristobal (Hutchison Whampoa) and the Gatun Yacht Club (Fernie) are already competing for the finite number of visiting cruise ships. Plus environmentalists are concerned about the ecologically important mangrove swamp and lagoon that Domínguez and his associates propose to destroy and historic preservationists want to save some of Randoph's old artillery batteries that the project would raze. On top of all that Colon residents generally dislike the idea of outsiders coming in to grab the economically stricken province's assets. Thus, unlike the stalled CEMIS project, the community has not rallied behind Caribbean Key.

Photo by Eric Jackson

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