Panama’s president said he is rejecting President Trump’s call for the United States to retake control of the Panama Canal. The Panamanian leader added he will not allow his country’s “total superiority” of the shipping channel to be lessened.
President Trump wants the United States to once again run the canal it built in the early 1900s for economic and national security reasons.
“We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back,” Trump said during his inaugural address.
“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,” President Jose Raul Mulino said in a statement minutes later.
Trump said American ships, including military vessels, are being severely overcharged to transit the canal.
“We have been treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made, and Panama’s promise to us has been broken,” Trump said. “The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated.”
Former President Jimmy Carter gave Panama control of the canal in 1978 with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties. The United States didn’t officially give Panama’s government full control until 1999. President Trump specifically said China is operating the canal, a notion Mulino denied.
“There is no presence of any nation in the world interfering with our administration,” Mulino said. “The Canal was not a concession from anyone.”
The People’s Republic of China has made significant investments in canal infrastructure, and Chinese companies have managing rights for two ports on either side.
In 1903, the U.S. gained permanent rights to the Panama Canal Zone when former President Theodore Roosevelt signed a treaty with newly independent Panama. The canal cost $375 million to build, which was the nation’s most expensive construction project at the time.
