U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday accused Panama of charging excessive rates for use of the Panama Canal and said that if Panama did not manage the canal in an acceptable fashion, he would demand the U.S. ally hand it over.
In an evening post on Truth Social, Trump also warned he would not let the canal fall into the "wrong hands," and he seemed to warn of potential Chinese influence on the passage, writing the canal should not be managed by China.
The post was an exceedingly rare example of a U.S. leader saying he could push a sovereign country to hand over territory. It also underlines an expected shift in U.S. diplomacy under Trump, who has not historically shied away from threatening allies and using bellicose rhetoric when dealing with counterparts.
The United States largely built the canal and administrated territory surrounding the passage for decades. But the U.S. government fully handed control of the canal to Panama in 1999 after a period of joint administration.
"The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the U.S.," Trump wrote in his Truth Social post.
"It was not given for the benefit of others, but merely as a token of cooperation with us and Panama. If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question."
The Panamanian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
© Thomson Reuters 2024.
38 Comments
Desert Tortoise
Where to even begin? Panama has no obligations to the US. Their government answers to their own people.
JJE
Monroe Doctrine 101
Sometimes powers take action in their backyards to prevent other powers/blocs from controlling things, here and there.
deanzaZZR
Maybe Trump thinks Peru is a neighbor of Panama. The imperial USA president can do pretty much anything he/she wants for "national security". Watch out Panama.
mist1
Trump's message to the world: just hand over everything to me!
Desert Tortoise
Jupiter conveniently ignores the decades of protests and even riots in 1957 and again in 1964, and treaty negotiations dating back to the Eisenhower Administration that led to the 1977 treaty, ratified in 1978 that ended the Panama Canal Zone and guaranteed Panamanian sovereignty over the canal by 31 December 1999. The Panamanians felt like colonials in their own country and the government of Panama even broke diplomatic relations with the US for a time in the 1970s.
There is zero chance of Panama surrendering the canal. They just paid a huge amount of money to added a series of larger locks to accommodate the huge container ships and bulk carriers common today in maritime commerce that were never envisioned when the canal was built. The cost to operate these new locks plus the debt that must be repaid is part of the reason canal rates have increased. Panama also needs to build a new dam, reservoir and pipeline to supply water to the canal as canal operations are depleting water faster than it can be replenished from the current watershed feeding the canal. The new reservoir will be in a different watershed and water piped over to Lake Gatun to supply the canal. None of this is cheap. But ol' Jupiter thinks canal rates should be lower. Amazing the effluvia that comes from his mouth.
DDK
If he keeps talking, US ships will soon have to cross the Drake Passage instead of Panama Canal.
Some dude
It's a good fallback plan if Denmark fails to sell Greenland.
mariasjapan
OK Vice President Trump :)
shogun36
lol
HopeSpringsEternal
Sometimes National Security 'Trumps' all other considerations. Trump's not naive, he understands China's intentions in Central & South America.
Toblerone
Now THAT is a president!
wtfjapan
lets see maga sane wash this.
you got what you vote for FAFO
Peter14
Trump returning America to pariah status. Not trusted by allies or friends. Trump makes America a laughing stock. The next President after Trump will spend four years attempting to repair frayed relationships and credibility for America as a leader. Something Trump will completely destroy during his second term. What an imbecile.
wtfjapan
Trump's not naive, he understands China's intentions in Central & South America.
China has lots of intentions in Africa, whats Trump going to do make the Africans had over their ,shitehole ,(Trumps words) countries
wtfjapan
Now THAT is a president!
dictator wannabe , there fixed it for you
garymalmgren
Trump says he might demand Panama hand over canal
Right, here you are Mr President. You have 30 days to remove it.
After that we will be charging your rent.
I mean, A LOT OF RENT
Five Families
The Panama Canal was not the United States property to give. When the French gave up trying to build the canal, Theodore Roosevelt unsuccessfully tried to buy the property from Colombia (of which Panama at that time was a province). He arranged to have a few riflemen start a revolution of independence from Colombia.
Roosevelt sent the US Navy to blockade the Colombian Navy from entering Panama. Within a week a French diplomat named Banau-Varilla and Secretary of State Hay created a treaty to lease from the Republic of Panama a 10 mile strip in the center of Panama in Perpetuity. Not a single Panamanian resident or member of the newly independent republic had any say or knowledge of the treaty.
The US successfully completed the canal in 11 years and created one of the wonders of the world. In the 1950s through the 1970s the Panamanian people wanted more access through the canal zone which cut their country in two. Up until 1963 there was no way across the canal except by ferry. In 1963 the US Corp of engineers built the Thatcher Ferry Bridge (now called Puente de Las Americas) so Panamanians could drive from one side to the other.
In 1964 there were riots in Panama, presumably started by students but no doubt communist instigators were behind these riots and several people were killed when US soldiers marched through the streets of Panama. After that the relations between the US and Panama became frayed. It was in the middle of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the US and the Canal Zone was one of the issues which allowed the Soviet Union to make significant inroads in Latin America.
From World War II to the 1970s, the Canal and the Canal Zone lost its military significance but was still an economic consideration. The dictator Omar Torrijos, who was more of a populist than a Communist, was negotiating the possibility with the Soviet Union to build a new canal in the Western side of Panama, which, if successful, would have made the Panama Canal obsolete.
Since the US was no longer concerned about the military value of the canal, Richard Nixon through his negotiator Ellsworth Bunker started negotiations to revert the canal zone back to Panama. As I said, the US only had a lease, but no ownership of the Canal Zone. Carter continued the negotiations and in 1977 made the Carter-Torrijos treaty to return the canal zone back to its owners.
The US did get what it wanted. It got the exclusive right to defend the canal as it saw fit, assured the international neutrality of the canal to all countries, and the right of first refusal to build a new canal or expand the current canal. That treaty was the basis for allowing the US to enter Panama militarily to remove Noriega from Panama in 1989. It also ended the ability of the Soviet Union to use Panama as wedge issue for the charge of US colonialism.
On December 31, 1999 final control of the Canal and its Zone reverted back to Panama. The bottom line was the US never owned the canal, and the treaty served US interests in maintaining the canal as an international economic icon.
Panama has in the last 17 years demonstrated the ability to maintain and operate the Canal. It also successfully built the second series of locks to permit larger and heavier ships through the canal. They opened in 2016.
On this one topic. I have say, try diplomacy. Mr. Pres. And finacial abuse would need to be proven to the American pepole first and the Goverment. The USA is not in the demand for land biz. We can do better than that.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Are we going to fix their water problem, too? Full of genius ideas, this one.
Nifty
Trump takes over on January 20th, and has already threatened most of our allies one way or another.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Already violated by Cuba.
HopeSpringsEternal
Won't be a take-over per say, they'll just 're-organize' the Canal and $buy-out the "Mgmt. Team". Simple.
Musk & Co. with ideas from his vast network can "FIX IT"!
TaiwanIsNotChina
Has Musk perfected the moisture farm from Star Wars?
HopeSpringsEternal
Panama's suddenly this great Democracy with no regard for Uncle Sam. Seems lot like Taiwan & China, or Ukraine & Russia. Same media 'spin' and playbook with the same Globalists looking for Political & Financial $Windfalls.
Sven Asai
Does then this handing over process also include a 'limited military operation'? lol
JJE
Cuba violated nothing - they are a decent member Non-Aligned Movement.
TaiwanIsNotChina
With foreign military bases. Ukraine should hope for a similar non-alignment.
JJE
Zero foreign military bases in decent Cuba apart from that disgrace called Gitmo.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Chinese and russian intelligence bases do exist in indecent Cuba.
HopeSpringsEternal
Intel's everywhere, especially w/Musk and Starlink tech. but military bases another matter. Panama's strategic and we know Trump values location, location, location... so one could safely assume it's under consideration.
wallace
Clown! Last time he thought he could buy Greenland.
Jimizo
Senile old fool.
HopeSpringsEternal
Trump's such a fool he's widely regarded as the most powerful President since FDR. Trump's not afraid to shake it up and try new things, why he was elected, as business as usual wasn't working out too well!
Panama 'disruption' fits the Trump mandate and narrative
Jimizo
Have you read half of the books ever written on presidents?
Jimizo
Read a comment saying Trump couldn’t find Panama on a map followed by another comment pointing out that he probably couldn’t find the Panama Canal on a map of Panama.
TaiwanIsNotChina
FDR passed the New Deal. Trump passed tax cuts.
HopeSpringsEternal
Reason Trump's regarded as so powerful is because he's effectively re-aligned Republican Party to the working and middle class of all races, religions, colors and creeds and in doing so badly damaged the Democrats Party.
Last Pres. to do so in such a manner was FDR, Trump pulled it off due to an extra 4 years to reshape the party.
In his second term he's unconstrained, and that means any talk of Panama has to be taken far more seriously, like everything else, especially as D's have no more bullets to fire, SCOTUS, Mainstream media collapse, etc.
Nobody's happy with D's these days either, cost of living, global chaos and migrant invasion burned serious goodwill
TaiwanIsNotChina
ChatGPT cannot answer why any of this translates to a right to invade Panama.
Democrats have all of the bullets MAGAs have had over the past four years.
They have only to see checkpoints on their streets to change their minds.
itsonlyrocknroll
Struth, well the next US administration foreign policy will begun with the word Liberal removed from the English language.
The government of China will be seething.