The pilot of the Panama channel ship navigates in difficult waters and Trump

Hanging from a staircase attached to the hull of a gigantic oil tanker, captain Efraín Hallax began his climb to the crew waiting for Athina, a ship anchored to Panama Bay and third in a row to pass the Panama channel.

The discouraging ascent upwards of the changing ship was not a novelty for Captain Hallax, 73

On this night of February, Captain Hallax reported to work half an hour before midnight-and a few hours after President Trump had canceled a call with President José Raúl Mulino di Panama to continue their negotiations on the future of the channel, which the President of the United States wishes to return to American control.

The crossing during the night was nothing out of the ordinary for the captain. With about 3 percent of the world maritime trade transported through its locks, the Panama channel is a 24 -hour operation.

“Business as usual,” said Captain Hallax. “Always business as usual in the Panama channel, it doesn’t matter Christmas, it doesn’t matter the rain, it doesn’t matter the fog, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter Trump.”

As he took his first sip of the many coffees of the night, Captain Hallax said that promptness was an essential ally of a pilot, and counts on caffeine – plus ice on the eyes – to help him keep him awake. “You don’t see anything right now, only small lights,” he said. “Flashing can cost you life.”

Captain Hallax is one of the 310 drivers – six are women – authorized by the Panama channel authority to drive a ship through the navigable street. These pilots are the only ones authorized to transit 50 miles, with the captain of the ship necessary to transfer control for the complex journey through the passage of the Isthmus.

Informed by the marine traffic control tower on night traffic, he knew what to expect: which ship to follow and what restrictions were in progress. “It’s a bit like chess, a constant calculation,” he said.

The Athina is small enough to adapt to the three series of locks, named Miraflores, Pedro Miguel and Gatun, who were built by the American government and operated since the channel was opened in 1914. (In 2006, the wider locks for larger ships were opened.) With good weather, the transit takes about 10 hours.

About 40 ships can make the trip every day and the more ships cross, the more money makes Panama. And it’s a lot.

Always profitable, the channel “is a cash cow for the country,” said Captain Hallax. In 2024, he contributed with $ 2.4 billion to the government coffers.

The channel is tight and crowded and work no. 1 For pilots he is using their expert local knowledge to make sure that the ships they are driving do not hit the sides or another ship.

“They are highly specialized pilots,” said John Feley, former ambassador of the United States to Panama, “trained to move the largest movements in motion on the planet Earth, like looking at a horizontal move for the skyscraper”.

As was clarified by the bottleneck of the global trade created when a The container ship was blocked In the Suez channel, An error made in the navigable road restricted by a channel can have consequences felt all over the world.

In Captain Hallax it was said that the Miraflores Locks were available at 2:30 in the morning, so as soon as he arrived on the bridge, he took command of the ship.

“Sometimes there is friction with some captains,” he said of the transfer of power. “It’s like asking someone his wife.”

The steering from inside the bridge in a misty night or during a downpour can become particularly difficult and dangerous. “Sometimes I can’t see my nose,” said Captain Hallax. But tonight crossing would start at least easy. “The sea is calm now,” said Captain Hallax while examining the water around him, “but at this time of the year the winds can be difficult out there.”

While the oil tankers like Athina are common assignments, the range of ships that the pilots is wide. “Everything that floats,” he said, including military ships. “The submarines often appear, he said.

Growing up in a semi -rural neighborhood on the outskirts of Panama City, Captain Hallax said that from a young age he has always wanted to see how the outside world appeared.

Both his father and his stepfather were sailors, “so it was an influence,” he said. But it was the advice he received at a young age from a driver of the American channel that was a family friend who was really blocked. “If you want a future in this country,” said the American driver, “finds a job in the Panama channel”.

At the time that dream was out of reach. The area of ​​the United States channel was a mostly prohibited fantasy land, with the exception of a visit once a month with an aunt to visit her friend in the area. For the boy who lives sometimes without water and electricity, “everything was perfect in the area”, he recalled. “The roads, the trees, the manghi. The bulbs worked. The buses worked.”

When he reached adulthood, the channel area was still closed to panamenni. “It was impossible to knock on the door of a maritime agency, he said.” They were all inside the area. “

Thanks to a scholarship, Captain Hallax attended the Naval Academy of Arturo Prat in Chile and began his career in the peripatetic sea. But the works open to a Panamense were not the best: “From the chilli peppers to the vagabond wandering,” he said.

He collected additional maritime training wherever he could, from New York to Italy. Some ships he served has crossed the Panama channel. “I felt like I were in another country, not mine,” he said.

In 1977, when Captain Sailing Globe Hallax was on his mid -1920s, Panama signed the Treaty with the United States that would have given him full control of the channel in 20 years.

Knowing that it was to fill a huge void of trained pilots, the Panama government launched an open call for all Panamensi sailors with a license for the first officer and at least eight years of navigation experience. At the time, Captain Hallax was working on a cruise ship in Oregon.

He applied immediately and in 1983 he became one of the nine Panamenni who constituted the first lot of pilots hired to start replacing the Americans.

Today, the pilots come from various backgrounds, but share one thing. “They are purely paid,” said Mr. Feley, ex-Abassador.

The pilots earn about $ 350,000 per year – and double if they are willing to give up a normal life and work all the time.

But Captain Hallax has decided not to spend every hour at sea. One man until he was 62 years old, his other works included three bars, two who take their name from pirates.

The most difficult moment of his career to cross the channel is one of which he has rarely spoke since then: once he stopped a ship on purpose, to protest.

During the last days of the dictatorship of General Manuel Noriega, who ruled Panama from 1983 to 1989, one day Captain Hallax as he went to work saw “a pile of policemen beat women indiscriminately”.

A few hours later, while piloting a Turkish boat through the closures of Pedro Miguel, “tears that rolled me along my face from anger”, dropped the anchor of the ship to the narrow entrance to the Gatun Lake and took the ship of the ship to announce his protest against Noriega.

The interruption – “the stupid thing I’ve ever done,” he said – lasted 15 minutes.

He was fired and with the Goon of Noriega who were looking for him, he went to hide. But only two weeks later, President George HW Bush ordered an invasion of Panama. The channel was closed for a week and Noriega was soon arrested.

Captain Hallax’s lawyer claimed that his action should be considered heroic resistance, not insubordination and weeks later “that stupidity”, he said, was hired.

The crossing of the Athina night left without hitches and Captain Hallax arrived home the next morning. “Sleepy,” he said.

He plans to continue piloting more two years, then retiring to see more of the world – this time on foot. “I found out that I like to walk,” he said.

Whatever became in the interest of the Mr. Trump channel, Captain Hallax does not expect them to change for the pilots.

The sea, the wind, the fear, the exhaustion and the bad food on board will remain.

“Politics,” he said, “these things will not change.”