Ilya Espino de Marotta, deputy administrator of the Panama Canal, speaks during an interview with AFP at the Panama Canal Administration Building in Panama City on September 4, 2026. (Photo by ARNULFO FRANCO / AFP via Getty Images)

Ilya Espino de Marotta, deputy administrator of the Panama Canal, speaks during an interview with AFP at the Panama Canal Administration Building in Panama City on September 4, 2026. (Photo by ARNULFO FRANCO / AFP via Getty Images)

Ilya Espino de Marotta, deputy administrator of the Panama Canal, speaks during an interview with AFP at the Panama Canal Administration Building in Panama City on September 4, 2026. (Photo by ARNULFO FRANCO / AFP via Getty Images)

Ilya Espino de Marotta, deputy administrator of the Panama Canal, speaks during an interview with AFP at the Panama Canal Administration Building in Panama City on September 4, 2026. (Photo by ARNULFO FRANCO / AFP via Getty Images)

Ilya Espino de Marotta, deputy administrator of the Panama Canal, stands before an interview with AFP at the Panama Canal Administration Building in Panama City on September 4, 2026. (Photo by ARNULFO FRANCO / AFP via Getty Images)

Ilya Espino de Marotta, deputy administrator of the Panama Canal, speaks during an interview with AFP at the Panama Canal Administration Building in Panama City on September 4, 2026. (Photo by ARNULFO FRANCO / AFP via Getty Images)

Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino waves alongside his wife, Maricel Cohen de Mulino, as they arrive at the inauguration ceremony for the new Panama Canal Administrador at the Administration building in Panama City on September 7, 2026. Marotta assumes the administration of the Panama Canal for the 2026-2033 period, becoming the first woman to lead the interoceanic waterway. (Photo by ARNULFO FRANCO / AFP via Getty Images)

Panama Canal Authority Administrator Ilya Espino de Marotta and her husband, Peter Marotta, arrive at her inauguration ceremony at the Panama Canal Administration Building in Panama City on September 7, 2026. Marotta assumes the administration of the Panama Canal for the 2026-2033 period, becoming the first woman to lead the interoceanic waterway. (Photo by ARNULFO FRANCO / AFP via Getty Images)