President-elect Donald J. Trump’s proposal Tuesday that the United States could take back the Panama Canal, including by force, has upset Panamanians who live under U.S. military presence in the canal zone and were once invaded by U.S. troops. I let it happen. in front.
Few seemed to be taking Trump’s threats seriously, but Panama’s Foreign Minister Javier Martínez Acha said in a press conference hours after the American president-elect mused out loud about taking back the canal. , made the country’s position clear.
“Sovereignty of our canals is non-negotiable and part of our history of struggle and irreversible conquest,” Martinez Acha said. “Let’s be clear: The canal belongs to the Panamanian people and will always remain that way.”
Experts say Mr. Trump’s real goal was to intimidate, perhaps to secure preferential treatment from the Panamanian government for U.S. ships using the route. More broadly, they said, he may be trying to send a message across the region that is important to his goal of controlling the flow of migrants toward the U.S. border.
“If the United States wanted to ignore international law and act like Vladimir Putin, it could invade Panama and take back the canal.” Benjamin Gedan, Director of the Latin America Program at the Wilson Center in Washington. “No one would consider it a legitimate act, and it would not only seriously damage the image of the canal but also create instability on the canal.”
In recent weeks, as he prepares to take office, Trump has talked about not only taking over the Panama Canal, which the United States transferred control of to Panama in a treaty in the late 1990s, but also about buying Greenland from Denmark. I’ve talked about it repeatedly (though, as it happens, it’s not for sale). He returned to those expansionist themes in a rambling speech Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, this time refusing to rule out using military force to retake the canal.
“We may have to do something,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments have not resonated with the Panamanian people.
Raul Arias de Parra, an ecotourism entrepreneur and a descendant of one of the nation’s founding politicians, said talk of American military power evoked memories among his compatriots of the 1989 American invasion of Panama. Ta. He pointed out that the objectives of military operations at that time were: remove the country’s authoritarian leader Manuel Noriega;
“It was not an invasion aimed at colonization or seizing territory,” Arias de Parra said. “While it was a tragedy for those who lost loved ones, we were liberated from a terrible dictatorship.”
Trump’s current threat to take back the canal is “very unlikely and very ridiculous,” he said. He said the United States has the right under the treaty to defend the canal if its operation is threatened, “but not now.”
Some experts believe Mr. Trump has been persuaded by Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino to move more aggressively to stem the flow of migrants through the Darien Canyon, a jungle region through which hundreds of thousands of migrants have crossed. He said they may really be hoping to get a commitment to work on it. They’re moving north, fueling a surge at the U.S. border
Mulino is already focused on stopping immigration.
Jorge Eduardo Ritter, a former foreign minister and Panama’s first canal minister, said, “There is no country with which the United States has cooperated more on immigration issues than Panama.”
Mulino approved it on his first day in office. arrangement restrain with the US To repatriate immigrants who entered Panama illegally, U.S.-funded flights are being used to help migrants transit through the Darien region. Since then, the number of crossings has fallen significantly, to the lowest number in almost two years.
If the Trump administration carries out mass deportations of illegal immigrants, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean will have to agree to accept planes carrying nationals of other countries as well as their own deported citizens. . Panama does not agree do.
Experts said Mr. Trump was likely aiming to discount U.S. ships, which account for the largest proportion of ships that transit the 40-mile ocean-to-ocean route. Tolls are rising as the Panama Canal Authority grapples with the drought and the cost of building reservoirs to combat it.
“The next president will compromise on a U.S. discount on the canal and declare victory,” said Gedan of the Wilson Center.
He said many experts on the region view Trump’s belligerent rhetoric as “standard operating procedure for past and future presidents to use threats and intimidation even against America’s partners and friends.” It is said that he is looking at it.
After lengthy negotiations, the United States, then under President Jimmy Carter, agreed to a plan to gradually hand over the canal it built in Panama in the late 1970s. The replacement was completed in December 1999.
Theories have been swirling this week about why Trump appears to be focused on the canal. Some noted that ceding control of the canal to Panama has been a long-standing thorn in the side of Republicans.
Some said Trump was angry that the ports at the end of the canal were controlled by Hong Kong companies. Panama’s president dismissed these concerns.
“There is absolutely no Chinese interference or participation in anything related to the Panama Canal,” Mulino said at a press conference in December.
Panama, a small country with a population of over 4 million people and without an active military according to its constitution, is in no position to stop the US military. But the protests would likely be large enough to paralyze the Panama Canal and have a devastating impact on global trade, especially the United States, experts agreed.
Ritter, a former foreign secretary, told Panama he could only hope that the United States would abide by international law. “This is a case of an egg hitting a stone,” he said.
