Q24N (EFE) After the promise during the inauguration speech of the now US president, Donald Trump, to “take back” the Panama Canal, Panamanians are claiming that the interoceanic route is theirs, as a result of a long generational struggle for its sovereignty.
Trump, who was sworn in on Monday, January 20, 2025, insisted again that he will take back the canal because, in his opinion, China is “operating” it and American ships pay a high toll fee and are not treated “fairly,” claims that the Panamanian government has flatly rejected.
“China is operating the Panama Canal. But we did not give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we are going to take it back,” he said during his inauguration speech.
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Trump’s complaints are not new, after he announced his intentions regarding the canal in December, increasing the feeling of rejection and tension in the Central American country, which insists on its sovereignty.
His words received an immediate response from the Panamanian president, José Raúl Mulino: “I reiterate what I expressed in my message to the Nation, on December 22: the Canal is and will continue to be Panama’s.”
Mulino also denied the presence “of any nation in the world that interferes” with the administration of the canal, in Panamanian hands since 1999 after the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, signed on September 7, 1977, in Washington by the Panamanian leader, Omar Torrijos (1929-1981), and the American president, Jimmy Carter (1924-2024).
“The Canal was not a concession from anyone. It was the result of generational struggles that culminated in 1999, as a result of the Torrijos-Carter treaty,” stressed the Panamanian president, who did not congratulate Trump on his new mandate.
“They never gave it to us because it was never theirs”
Trump not only believes that the US has been treated “very badly by this reckless gift that they never” had to “deliver,” but also warns that “the promise of Panama has been broken.”
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Trump’s statements during his first speech as president provoked a wave of rejection in the country, recalling that not only has the waterway been in Panamanian hands for 25 years, but that “it is an example of success and national sovereignty.”
“The canal is ours. PERIOD,” said former presidential candidate and leader of the Movimiento Otro Camino (MOCA) party, Ricardo Lombana, in X.
For his part, former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares (1994 – 1999) not only rejected Trump’s words as “false”, but clarified that “there is not a single Chinese running the Panama Canal.”
Former President Martín Torrijos (2004-2009), son of the general who signed the treaties that marked the handover of the canal to Panama, emphasized: “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.”
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Even private companies have also rejected Trump’s statements. They are joined by local politicians, social media users, activists and unions, in favor of Panama’s sovereignty, a particularly sensitive issue in the country due to the presence of the United States for almost 100 years in the so-called ‘Canal Zone’, an enclave administered by the US.
“We reiterate our absolute commitment to the Torrijos-Carter Treaties. The validity of these Treaties is incontestable, as is Panama’s sovereignty over the Canal. The use of force and the threat of the use of force are not admissible and are not acceptable to dispute the acquired rights of the Panamanian people and government with respect to the Canal,” said the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro.
The Canal, “an issue of international priority” for Trump
According to veteran Spanish journalist Zoilo G. Martínez de Vega, who in his time as correspondent for the EFE Agency in Central America began a close friendship with General Torrijos, Trump has turned the Panama Canal into one of his “international priorities” and “fundamental objectives.”
“Knowing President Trump’s background, he will pursue this objective of Panama intensely and Panama has all the international rights (on its side),” Martínez told EFE, who recalled the international support for the country during the negotiations for the sovereignty of the canal.
Martínez emphasized that Panama “is going to have a hard time,” but it has a president, a government and a foreign minister, Javier Martínez-Acha, “completely convinced of his rightness.”
“I understood that Trump’s obsession with Panama naturally cannot be to recover the canal because (…) the American government delegated it to the Torrijos-Carter Treaty. I think that (…) what he intends is to lower the tariffs on the passage of American ships to present it to the country as a victory,” he concluded.
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