A Killing at Sea Implicates the Armed Forces in Lawless Venezuela
Around midnight on February 23, Eulalio Bravo, a marine electrician, was dozing in his rack aboard the San Ramon, an oil tanker anchored off the coast of Venezuela.Suddenly, he heard footsteps pounding along the passageway outside. His captain, Jaime Herrera, cried for help."Be still!" an unfamiliar voice ordered.A gun fired.By the time Bravo and eight other shipmates emerged to see what had happened, the captain lay dead, a gunshot in the back of his head. Herrera's stateroom had been pillaged, drawers flung open, his bunk overturned. The killers were gone, as were thousands of dollars the captain kept under lock and key, according to crew members interviewed by Reuters.The murder…
ICTSI Colombia Gears for 2016 Launch
Sociedad Puerto Industrial de Aguadulce S.A. (SPIA), a unit of International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) in Colombia, recently received four super post Panamax quay cranes (QC) and five rubber-tired gantries (RTG) as it enters the final stage of preparation for the operational launch in 2016 of the Aguadulce Multi-User Container Terminal (AMCT) at the Port of Buenaventura, Colombia. Manufactured by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. (ZPMC), the QCs have an individual lifting capacity of 60 tons, and feature twin lift spreaders. They can reach up to 65 meters into the water and perform up to 40 moves per hour. With a maximum lift height of 46 meters, the QCs are capable of servicing 18,000-TEU Triple E class vessels.
Colombian Ports Mull Expansion
The container and gross tonnage handling across all Colombian ports will undergo expansion in 2015, cementing a return to growth following a 2013 downturn, says BMI’s Colombia Shipping Report. "The domestic container demand will be more muted than we expected, as falling oil prices will weigh on economic growth. We have revised down our real GDP forecast for 2015 from 4.9% to 3.9%, and our Cartagena container throughput forecasts correspondingly," says the report. The port of Cartagena will see total tonnage volume increase by 4.5% to 21.63mn tonnes in 2015, and will average growth of 5.3% to 2019. Container traffic at Cartagena will grow by 7.9% to 2.22mn twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2015. Growth to 2019 will average 9.4%.
ICTSI Finalizes Deal for Colombia Port
According to reports, ICTSI Ltd., a wholly-owned unit of International Container Terminal Services, has finalized agreements to put up a $180m multi-user container terminal at the Port of Buenaventura in Colombia as well as acquire Sociedad Puerto Industrial de Aguadulce S.A. (SPIA). The estimated total investment requirement includes the construction and development of a 700,000 TEU per annum container terminal. Construction is scheduled to begin in November this year, with expected completion within 18-24 months thereafter. Source: ABS CBN
Sub Seized in Drug Bust
The Colombian navy has seized a 60-foot long submarine that likely was used to haul tons of cocaine out to sea for shipment to the United States. No drugs were found when the fiberglass submarine was discovered Thursday about 30 miles from the Pacific Coast port of Buenaventura, but three people were arrested and two speedboats seized. The submarine carried cocaine to speedboats in the Pacific Ocean for transportation to Central America and on to the United States. Authorities say smuggling cocaine by sea has in recent years become the top method of transport, as radar systems have made it exceedingly difficult to smuggle drugs in small airplanes without being detected.
