Donald Trump’s expansionist ambition directly threatens the sovereignty of Panama, which watches with perplexity the newly inaugurated president’s repeated promise to retake for the United States the interoceanic canal that crosses the isthmus in his nascent administration. “China is operating the Panama Canal, but we did not give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we are going to get it back,” he insisted once again this Monday, in his investiture speech. As president-elect, he had already accused Panama of charging “exorbitant” rates to United States ships and threatened to take control of the infrastructure, without ruling out the use of economic or military measures.
The Republican magnate referred for the umpteenth time this Monday to the history of the channel. Or at least, his own version. He claimed that more money than ever before was spent on an infrastructure project and that 38,000 lives were lost during construction, which various experts have considered at least an exaggeration. “We have been treated very badly with this foolish gift that should never have been given, and the promise that Panama made to us has been broken. The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty have been totally violated,” he lamented. “American ships are being grossly overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, and that includes the United States Navy,” he reiterated in his speech.
“I must comprehensively reject the words outlined by President Donald Trump regarding Panama and its canal,” the Panamanian president, José Raúl Mulino, who is preparing his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, reacted almost immediately. The president reiterated the message that he had already launched in December. “The canal is and will continue to belong to Panama and its administration will continue to be under Panamanian control with respect to its permanent neutrality. There is no presence of any nation in the world that interferes with our administration.” The canal, he added, was not a concession from anyone, but the result of generational struggles over almost a century. “For 25 years, without interruption, we have managed and expanded it responsibly to serve the world and its commerce, including the United States.”
Since Trump began his threats on December 21 to seize control of the passage, the clamor claiming that “the canal belongs to Panama” has spread strongly in the Central American country. Politicians from different sides have closed ranks in defense of national sovereignty. The New Year commemorated exactly a quarter of a century since control of the road was transferred to Panamanian hands. The Neutrality Treaty, to which 40 nations have joined, including the United States, establishes that all ships must pass under the same rules.
The Panama Canal represents, first of all, “many years of struggle,” former president Arístides Royo (1978-1982) pointed out in a recent interview with Morning Express. “There is unanimity among Panamanians in considering that these demands are absurd, because they are based on a wrong concept,” said Royo, who was also Minister for Panama Canal Affairs between 2019 and 2024. “There is definitely no interference from the Chinese Government.” , he emphasized in that conversation.
Also former president Martín Torrijos (2004-2009), who competed with Mulino in last year’s presidential elections, also rejected the threats. “What President Trump says does not define our destiny. Panama is not alone, history is on our side. Sovereignty is the fruit of our struggle,” said the son of General Omar Torrijos, the ruler who in 1977 signed with the then president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, the treaty that returned sovereignty over the canal to the country. “We are supported by reason, we are protected by law, we are driven by the strength of our national unity and international solidarity. The canal is ours and will continue to belong to Panama,” agreed with the current president.
The canal, which uses a series of locks and reservoirs over 82 kilometers, is the only river passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Its story is known. In 1903, US President Theodore Roosevelt took Panama to finish unfinished works with private funds, and with that excuse he dismantled more than twenty towns and expelled more than 40,000 people. The pass became a 1,432 square kilometer enclave with no local population, known as the Canal Zone.
In the long road that Panama took to recover sovereignty over the canal, there was even a break in relations in 1964, when North American officers murdered 21 students for trying to plant a Panamanian flag in a military barracks. The United States controlled it until the last day of 1999, when it returned it in compliance with the treaty agreed upon in 1977 by General Torrijos and President Carter, who recently died. “I believe that Panama would deserve the support of friendly countries, of those same countries that supported the conclusion of the treaties between Panama and the United States,” says former President Royo, who was also a negotiator of the Treaties at the time, when calling for Latin American solidarity. Torrijos-Carter.
