NEWS.
At the end of December 2024, during a meeting in Phoenix (Arizona), Donald Trump, exasperated by the rights of passage imposed on American ships using the Panama Canal, threatened to demand the resumption of control of this strategic maritime route. Behind this threat lies a desire to curb Chinese expansion in this sector where 5% of global maritime traffic passes. He expressed it in these terms on his social network Truth Social: “ It was only up to Panama to manage it, not China or anyone else (…) We would NEVER let it fall into the wrong hands! »
A threat strongly condemned by the current president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, who then declared, without explicitly referring to the American president’s comments, on his X account: “ The canal is not controlled, directly or indirectly, by China, the European Community, the United States, or any other power. As a Panamanian, I firmly reject any expression that distorts this reality.”
The exploitation of the canal by the Americans
The Panama Canal is an 80 kilometer long shipping canal that crosses the Isthmus of Panama in Central America, connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. It is a considerable work which was built to shorten the maritime route between the Atlantic and the Pacific and thus prevent ships from going around South America via Cape Horn. Construction work began in 1880 under the orders of a Frenchman, Ferdinand de Lesseps. They were completed by the United States under the leadership of George Washington Goethals. The canal was inaugurated on August 15, 1914.
-Between 1903 (Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty) and 1977 (Torrijos-Carter treaties), the Panama Canal and its region was controlled by the United States. During this long period, while the Americans considered the canal zone as an important economic and strategic point, the Panamanian government complained of the “ colonial situation » imposed by the United States and called for the closure of military bases.
The report below dated 1973 describes well the coexistence of these “two Panamas”, with the exclusive presence of Americans around the canal.
