Top political leaders in Panama have held a ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the return of the Panama Canal after decades of United States control.
But the celebration took place on a dim note as US President-elect Donald Trump continued calls for his country to reassert dominance over the key waterway, which links the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea.
Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, a right-leaning leader like Trump, was among the speakers at Tuesday’s keynote ceremony in the capital, Panama City.
He assured spectators that the Panama Canal would remain in his country’s possession, dismissing Trump’s remarks without mentioning the American leader by name.
“There are no hands involved in the canal other than Panama’s,” Mulino said. “Rest assured, it will be in our hands forever.”
But Trump has increasingly pushed for US governance of the canal as part of his broader expansionist rhetoric.
Earlier this month, Trump teased that Canada should become the 51st US state, and he reiterated his desire to buy Greenland, an idea he floated during his first term in office.
But as Trump prepares for a second term on Jan. 20, he has alarmed some observers with threats to potentially remove the Panama Canal from Panamanian control.
On December 21, in a post on his online platform Truth Social, Trump accused Panamanian officials of “exorbitant prices” for passage through the canal.
The canal allows cargo ships to cross from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean without having to sail all the way around South America, a dangerous route that stretches thousands of kilometers.
But the channel has seen increased traffic in recent decades. It has also suffered a severe drought that hampered travel through its system of locks: chambers of water that lift boats up and down when the surrounding land is not level.
In his tweets, however, Trump indicated that Panama was violating a 1977 agreement that set conditions for the canal to pass from the US to Panamanian hands.
“This complete ‘ripping apart’ of our country will stop immediately,” Trump wrote in the first of two lengthy posts. In the second, he continued with a warning.
“If the principles, moral and legal, of this grand gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in full and without question,” he wrote.
“For Panamanian officials, please be guided accordingly.”
A control history
Building a canal through the Isthmus of Panama has long been an ambition of Western colonial powers.
In the late 1800s, for example, the US made moves to build the canal in Panama – part of Colombia at the time – but the South American country rejected the deal.
When Panama later declared independence, the US quickly supported its secession. The US was the first country to recognize Panama as its own country.
In exchange for US support, Panama gave the North American country the right to build the canal and oversee the surrounding land. This area became known as the Panama Canal Zone.
But critics saw the deal as a violation of Panama’s sovereignty. Ultimately, in 1977, then-US President Jimmy Carter signed two treaties to engineer the return of the canal and its surrounding lands.
That transfer took effect on December 31, 1999, exactly 25 years ago.
Carter died on Sunday, just short of the anniversary. Mulino honored the late US president on Tuesday by observing a moment of silence.
In his speech, Mulino described feeling a “mixture of happiness for this 25th anniversary” and “sadness” over Carter’s death.
Commemorating the ‘martyrs’
Tuesday’s celebrations also acknowledged protesters who died defending the canal’s return to Panamanian control.
Among those honored were more than 20 participants killed in a student protest on January 9, 1964.
That day, known in Panama as the Day of the Martyrs, saw students attempt to raise a Panamanian flag alongside that of the US at a high school in the canal zone. Violence erupted, resulting in the deaths of protesters as well as four American soldiers.
In recent days, Trump has accused Panama of violating the terms of the canal’s return, allegedly by allowing Chinese soldiers to operate the shipping lane.
But Panamanian officials have denied that China has any influence over the canal.
Jorge Luis Quijano, who served as the channel’s administrator from 2014 to 2019, was quoted in the Associated Press as saying that Trump has no legal basis for his claims about the channel.
“There is no clause of any kind in the neutrality agreement that allows the canal to be reclaimed,” Quijano said.
