Dr. Francisco Javier Bonilla is a historian of Latin America specializing in environmental history, infrastructure, and urban development. His research focuses on Panama and the wider Caribbean, examining how water, cities, and U.S. empire have shaped everyday life across the region. He received his PhD in History from Carnegie Mellon University and is currently turning his dissertation, Downstream from the Locks: The Technopolitics of Water in Panama’s Urban Borderlands, into a book.    If the US wanted to seize the Panama Canal, it would be illegal due to its status of neutrality.  Much like the USA, Panama has a burgeoning inequality that breaks along racial and social lines.   Wealthy elites and corporations are purchasing media outlets.    Due to pressure of the US and Corporate Media a vigorous discussion seldom occurs re: the future of the Canal and extra-judicial bombings off the coast of Venezuela, with little or no proof of guilt.