The proposal of President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday that the United States may return the Panama Canal – including by force – the unstable Panamanian people, who lived with the presence of the American army in the area of the canal and were attacked by American soldiers once. before.
Few seem to take seriously the threats of Mr. Trump, but Panama's foreign minister, Javier Martínez-Acha, made his country's position clear at a press conference hours after the US president-elect spoke loudly about retaking the canal.
“The sovereignty of our canal is indisputable and it is part of our history of struggle and irreversible victory,” said Mr. Martínez-Acha. “Let it be clear: The canal belongs to the Panamanian people and will continue to be so.”
Experts say that the intention of Mr. Trump was a threat, perhaps aimed at getting favorable treatment from the Panamanian government for American ships using the route. More broadly, they said, he may be trying to send a message to a region that will be critical to his goals of controlling the flow of migrants toward the U.S. border.
“If the US wants to break international law and act like Vladimir Putin, the US can invade Panama and get the canal back,” said Benjamin Gedan, director of the Wilson Center's Latin America Program in Washington. “No one can see it as a legitimate action, and it will not only bring bad damage to its image, but also the instability of the channel.”
In recent weeks, as he prepares to take office, Mr. Trump has repeatedly talked about not only taking over the Panama Canal, the control the United States gave to Panama in an agreement in the late 1990s, but also buying Greenland from Denmark (although. it is not sold as it happens). He returned to those expansion themes in a heated speech Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, and this time he refused to send in military forces to retake the canal.
“You may have to do something,” said Mr.
The words of Mr. Trump has not gone down well with the people of Panama.
Raúl Arias de Para, an eco-tourism entrepreneur and descendant of one of the country's founding politicians, said that talking about the US military evoked memories in his countrymen of the US invasion of Panama in 1989. replacing the country's veteran leader, Manuel Noriega.
“That was not an attack to colonize or take over territory,” Mr Arias de Para said. “It was very painful for those who lost their loved ones, but it freed us from a terrible tyranny.”
About the threat of Mr. Trump now retaking the canal, he said, “It may be too far, which is nonsense.” The United States has the right under the treaty to protect the canal if its work is threatened, he said, “but that's not the case now.”
Some experts say Mr. Trump may be hoping to get assurances from the president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, that he will work hard to stop the flow of migrants through the Darién Gap, a forest widened by hundreds of thousands of migrants. their way to the north, fueling the expansion of the US border
Mr. Mulino has already pushed hard to ban immigration.
“There is no country where the United States has received greater cooperation in immigration than Panama,” said Jorge Eduardo Ritter, former foreign minister and first minister of pipeline affairs in Panama.
On his first day in office, Mr. Mulino approved an arrangement with the United States to stop migration to the Darién region with the help of US-sponsored flights to return migrants who entered Panama illegally. Since then, the number of crossings has dropped significantly, with the lowest figures seen in almost two years.
If the government of Mr. Trump deporting a large number of undocumented immigrants, it will also require countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to agree to receive flights that do not only carry their deported citizens, but also people from other countries, which Panama did not agree to do.
Experts say it is possible that Mr. Trump wants a discount on American shipping, which makes up the majority of ships that pass through the 40-mile zone between the oceans. The fees have increased as the Panama Canal Authority has been dealing with the drought and the cost of creating a reservoir to cope with it.
“I think the president-elect can accept the US concession in the trenches and declare victory,” said Mr. Gedan, of the Wilson Center.
Many experts in the region, he said, consider the comments of Mr. Trump “as a standard operating procedure of a president who has served and uses threats and intimidation, even with US allies and friendly countries.”
After long negotiations, the United States, at that time under President Jimmy Carter, agreed in the late 1970s on a plan to gradually return the canal it had built in Panama to the country where it lay. The exchange was completed in December 1999.
The ideas of why Mr. Trump seems to be focused on this channel that has been circulating this week. Others have noted that giving up control of the canal to Panama has long been a sore point for Republicans.
Some say that Mr. Trump is angry that the ports at the end of the canal are controlled by companies from Hong Kong. Panama's president dismissed those concerns.
“There is absolutely no Chinese interference or involvement in anything related to the Panama Canal,” said Mr. Mulino at a press conference in December.
A small country with over four million people and no active military, according to its Constitution, Panama would not be in a position to block the US military. The protests, however, could be large, and could paralyze the Panama Canal, with disastrous consequences for world trade and especially for the United States, experts agreed.
Panama, said Mr. Ritter, the former secretary of state, can only hope that the United States will comply with international law. “Here is the story of the egg on the stone,” he said.
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