The Panama Canal is non-negotiable, reiterated the country’s president, José Raúl Mulino, along with several former rulersin the face of threats from the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, to recover the highway if he does not lower tolls for American ships.
“The sovereignty of our country and our canal are not negotiable”Mulino points out in a statement signed together with the former leaders of Panama Ernesto Pérez Balladares, Martín Torrijos and Mireya Moscoso.
The channel “is part of our history of struggle and an irreversible conquest,” adds the declaration, after a meeting of its signatories at the Palacio de Las Garzas, headquarters of the Panamanian government.
Former presidents Ricardo Martinelli, holed up in the Nicaraguan embassy, and Laurentino Cortizo, absent from the meeting, also showed their rejection of Trump’s threats on social media.
“Panamanians can think differently in many aspectsbut when it comes to our channel and our sovereignty we are all united under the same flag,” the statement states.
Solidarity with Panama
This Monday, Mulino thanked the international support for the country after the threats from the American president-elect.
Trump’s statements have unleashed a storm of criticism at the national and international level. Several Latin American governments have spoken out in favor of Panama.
Presidents such as the Colombian, Gustavo Petro, and the Mexican, Claudia Sheinbaum, have expressed their solidarity with Panama. In turn, China assured that the Panama Canal “is a great creation of the Panamanian people” and that it “will always respect” Panama’s sovereignty over it.
Also, the secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Amagro, wrote last Sunday in X that “We expect the fullest and unrestricted compliance with the agreements signed, approved and in force between the two countries”.
Rubén Blades: Trump tries to distract Americans
The famous Panamanian singer-songwriter Rubén Blades indicated that Donald Trump’s words demanding the return of the Panama Canal are to “distract the North American public from their real problems and flatter the pretensions” of the right with the idea of ”superiority.”
“The topic of the Panama Canal will continue to be used by Trump to distract the American public from their real problems and flatter the pretensions of the political right and the racists/supremacists/extremists who adore the idea of American superiority and control over other peoples, cultures, religions and countries,” Blades wrote in his blog “En la Esquina” on his website. .
The Panama Canal, built by the United States and inaugurated in 1914, passed into Panamanian hands in 1999, after the signing of treaties signed 22 years earlier by former US president Jimmy Carter and Panamanian nationalist leader Omar Torrijos.
However, Trump threatened on Saturday to recover the interoceanic waterway if he did not lower the cost of tolls for American ships.
Besides, accused China of being behind the operations of this route, administered by the Panama Canal Authority, a public and autonomous Panamanian entity.
The Panamanian government sets the cost of tolls based on demand. Ships pay according to their loading capacity and not their country of origin.
“Our Navy and commerce have been treated in a very unfair and reckless manner. The rates that Panama charges are ridiculous (…) this complete scam on our country will stop immediately,” Trump said.
If Panama cannot guarantee a “safe, efficient and reliable operation” of the canal, “then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in its entirety and without a doubt,” the Republican added.
Keep reading:
• What is the Interoceanic Corridor with which Mexico intends to compete with the Panama Canal?
• The ambitious and necessary plan that the Panama Canal has to survive as a navigable waterway
• “They erased entire towns”: the little-known story of the construction of the Panama Canal