MEXICO CITY — President Trump said Monday that the United States would reassert control over the Panama Canal, the strategic, U.S.-built waterway that Washington handed over to the Panamanian government more than a quarter-century ago.
“We gave it to Panama and we’re taking it back,” Trump declared in his inaugural address.
The president accused the Panamanian government of ignoring U.S. interests, overcharging U.S. ships — including U.S. Navy vessels — and, in effect, turning the vital maritime passage connecting the Pacific and Caribbean oceans over to China.
“China is operating the Panama Canal and we didn’t give it to China,” Trump charged.
In reaction to Trump, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino rejected the idea of his country giving up control of the canal, which is among the globe’s iconic ocean passages and a signature source of national pride and revenue for the Central American nation.
“The Canal is and will continue to be under Panamanian control,” Mulino said in a statement, repeating comments he made last month after Trump floated the idea of retaking control of the canal.
And, in a repudiation of Trump’s charge that China runs the canal, Mulino denied that any country except Panama directed operations. “No nation in the world interferes with our administration,” said Mulino, who said dialogue was the appropriate way to deal with any disputes. A Hong Kong-based consortium controls two ports on either end of the canal.
Trump provided no details on how the United States planned to go about reasserting control over territory and infrastructure that are part of sovereign Panamanian land — territory that the country’s leadership has vowed not to relinquish.
“We have been treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made, and Panama’s promise to us has been broken,” Trump said. “The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated.”
The United States handed control of the canal over to Panama in December 1999 after a period of joint-administration that followed U.S.-Panamanian accords signed in 1977. While some U.S. critics assailed the turnover as a betrayal, many supporters in both the United States and Latin America hailed the move as a historic and positive step in the history of the Americas.
The 51-mile-long canal avoids the need for ships to make the much longer voyage around Cape Horn at the tip of South America.
Considered one of the world’s monumental engineering feats, the canal opened in 1914 after years of construction that involved clearing out miles of malarial jungles, blasting through mountains and the erection of complex locks across the Isthmus of Panama. Thousands of laborers, many from Caribbean nations, perished in the massive canal project.
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