Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino assured this Monday that the canal “is and will continue to be Panama’s” and denied any foreign presence in the waterway’s administration, rejecting Donald Trump’s promise to “take it back” because China is “operating” it.
“I must completely reject the words outlined by President Donald Trump (…) the canal is and will continue to be Panama’s,” Mulino expressed in a statement published on his X account.
The canal’s 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,” he added. During his inauguration speech this Monday, Trump reiterated his intention, expressed several times before taking power, to take control of the interoceanic waterway, even by force.
“China is operating the Panama Canal and we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama and we’re going to take it back,” said Trump, who added that Americans have been “very mistreated with this foolish gift that should never have been given.” Mulino assured that “the canal was not a concession from anyone,” but rather the product of popular struggles and the treaties signed in 1977 by then-President Jimmy Carter, according to which control of the waterway was transferred to Panama in December 1999.
“We will exercise the right that protects us, the legal basis of the Treaty, the dignity that distinguishes us, and the strength given to us by International Law,” warned Mulino. Former President Martín Torrijos, son of General Omar Torrijos, who signed the treaties for Panama, emphasized Panama’s total sovereignty over the canal.
“What President Trump says does not define our destiny. Panama is not alone, history is on our side,” he stated. Businesspeople, unions, former canal administrators, and other Panamanian political leaders also expressed their rejection of Trump’s statements, and in the capital, a hundred people burned U.S. flags. The Panama Canal, built by the United States and inaugurated in 1914, has this North American country and China as its two largest users.
