About a hundred people demonstrated Tuesday in front of the United States Embassy in Panama after President-elect Donald Trump threatened to regain control of the interoceanic canal if the latter did not reduce the price of tolls for American ships.
“Trump, animal, don’t touch the canal,” chanted the demonstrators, who burned a portrait of the elected Republican and the American ambassador to Panama, Mari Carmen Aponte.
Slogans like “Who sells the canal, sells his mother”, “out with the gringo invader” and “one territory, one flag” were also heard among the demonstrators, who came at the call of the construction union and other organizations left. Some carried signs reading “Donald Trump, public enemy of Panama.” The demonstration took place without incident in front of the embassy, guarded by around twenty police officers.
The Panama Canal, built by the United States and inaugurated in 1914, passed into Panamanian hands on December 31, 1999 under treaties signed in 1977 by then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian nationalist leader , Omar Torrijos.
“Panama is a sovereign territory, there is a canal here and it is Panamanian, Donald Trump and his imperial delusion cannot claim a single centimeter of land in Panama,” said construction union leader Saul Méndez. “The (Panamanian) people have shown that they are capable of recovering their territory and we are not going to cede it again,” Jorge Guzman, a demonstrator, told AFP.
Donald Trump threatened on Saturday to regain control of the interoceanic waterway if the canal administration did not lower the price of tolls for American ships. If Panama is not able to guarantee “the safe, efficient and reliable operation” of this sea route, “we will then demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without discussion,” he said. he said. The rate is determined based on the capacity of the ships and the type of cargo, and not based on the country of origin.
The US president-elect also accused China of being behind the operations of the canal, which is managed by the Panama Canal Authority, an autonomous Panamanian public body. “The sovereignty of our country and our canal are not negotiable,” reacted Tuesday the President of Panama, José Raul Mulino, in a press release co-signed with three former Panamanian presidents.
