Richa M. said that the expansion was not necessary; they claimed that the construction of a mega-port on the Pacific side would be sufficient to meet probable future demand. Such a port would be the second in the American Pacific deep enough to handle post-Panamax ships, the first being Los Angeles. As Panama is already a natural trading route, it would be able to handle the movement of containers from the Pacific to the Atlantic side via railroad, where containers would be reloaded to other ships for worldwide distribution. In addition, the following organizations and people oppose the project: The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) stated in a press release that under the Torrijos government, the expanding Panama Canal would not likely serve the needs of the vast majority of Panamanians. Many of the benefits would be tied to the commercial interests of the country's accountants, bankers, and lawyers, as well as their US counterparts, and world trade. They also said that the administration's rampant corruption and other flaws raised questions about Panama's capacity to supervise such an enormous project. COHA has received some letters pointing out factual errors in its statement, and plans to modify its statement in response. Former President Guillermo Endara and his Vanguardia Moral de la Patria Party, MOLIRENA, a conservative, business-oriented party that normally gets about 10 percent of the vote. Most of the Panamanian left and most of the labor movement, including CONUSI (National Independent Syndicate Union) and FRENADESO (the National Front for the Defence of Social and Economic Rights). Most members of the nationalist Panameñista Party (Grettel Villalaz de Allen and Gonzalo Menendez, mentioned above, and former legislator Gloria Young are prominent examples). Proponents of Liberation Theology, in part because they suspected that poor farmers among whom they have a social base would be adversely affected. The canal expansion issue has aggravated the breach between this mainly Catholic strain and the Catholic hierarchy. See also Bayonne Bridge, an American bridge raised to accommodate post-Panamax ships Nicaragua Canal Tehuantepec Route Megaproject Panama Canal Railway References External links English Official Panama Canal Homepage 9 Facts about the Panama Canal Expansion – Infographic Controversy Over Expansion, An Overview of Issues Involved Disney Director George Scribner to Document Canal Expansion over 9 Years Engineering and Expansion Project Overview "Enlarging the Panama Canal For Larger Battleships", September 1940, Popular Science article on some of the earliest plans to