Panamanians say control of the canal that bears its name should not be returned to the United States, despite demands from President Donald Trump that “we’re taking it back.”
Although most believed the issue was closed when Panama took formal control of the canal operation from the United States in 1999, the issue resurfaced during the Republican presidential campaign when He proposed an engineering marvel that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. And must return to American control.
Trump repeated that claim in his inaugural address this week, saying, “China is running the Panama Canal,” and “we’re taking it back.” NBC News has learned that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Panama during his Latin American and Caribbean tour that begins next weekend.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Panamanian President Jose Raul Malino rejected the notion as he and other Panamanian leaders this week sought international support to keep the canal under their country’s control. Tried to.
Among those leaders is Jorge Luis Quijano, a former canal administrator who insists that Panamanians are running the waterway, not the Chinese. He also rejected Trump’s complaint that American ships pay more to pass through the canal than other countries.
“A Panamanian-flagged ship pays the same as a U.S.-flagged ship,” Quijano said, adding that prices are based on the size of the ship, and that larger container ships pay 1.2 to pass through the 51-mile waterway. Can pay millions of dollars. which terminates the Isthmus of Panama.
Quijano said he began working on the canal in 1975 after graduating as an engineer from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, when it was controlled by the United States. Americans were supervisors when he started, he said, but the Panamanians eventually became managers and “the Americans retired.”
“I watched the whole movie,” quipped Quijano as he witnessed the transition over the 44 years he worked on the canal, eventually becoming vice president of operations and a 2016 reconstruction that expanded the channel’s capacity. Led the effort.
Humberto Arcia, 72, who lived two miles from the canal in the Chorillo neighborhood as a child, said he will never forget the price Panamanians paid for the right to operate the canal in their country.
The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, signed in 1903, gave the United States the right to build and manage the Panama Canal. Construction began in 1904 after a failed attempt by a French construction team to build the ambitious route.
The massive project claimed the lives of more than 5,000 construction workers by the time it was completed in 1914, 350 of whom were American citizens.
Panama’s relationship with the United States was marked by riots and protests that opposed U.S. interference in the Central American nation’s affairs and control of the canal.
In 1964, anti-American riots broke out in Panama because the Panamanian flag was not allowed to fly alongside the American flag at Balboa High School in the US-controlled Canal Zone, which was attended by American students. US National Archives. The Canal Zone was America’s 10-mile concession where canal workers and their families lived.
Protests escalated and students from several high schools outside the Canal Zone marched to its entrance, where at least 20 people were killed in clashes with the U.S. Army, National Guard and Canal Zone police. The protests during the three-day riots mark the national holiday on January 9 every year, known as Martyrs’ Day.
Arcia, a retired banker and attorney, remembers hearing relatives of students talk about their loss when he lived near the canal. “Their suffering changed the lives of their families forever,” he said.
The riots were a turning point in Panamanian history, but it wasn’t until 1977 that President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian military leader Omar Torrijos signed the Torrijos-Carter Accords that would eventually lead to Panamanian surveillance.
The Panama Canal Authority assumed full control on December 31, 1999.
American historian David McCullough wrote in his book “The Passage between the Seas”: “Fifty miles between seas was the most difficult journey ever accomplished by human effort and ease, and the figures of tonnage or toll Numbers cannot express its greatness. It is basically the expression of this old and great desire to bring people together.
There was the Panama Canal. Nominee One of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World in 1994.
Today, the canal is one of the most important trade routes to the Americas and a major source of income for Panama. The canal produces annually. Over $5 billion in revenue According to the US State Department, on the nation’s treasury.
According to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), the ships that pass through generate revenue, but the canal also attracts businesses that create jobs in industries such as logistics, insurance and banking.
Panamanians said the canal was part of their national identity.
Marjorie Miller, a Panamanian business consultant, said her great-grandfather, John Miller, moved from Jamaica to Panama to work on the canal. U.S. Census Bureau records show he lived in an American labor camp known as the Red Tank with other canal workers.
“I always knew how important the canal was to our country because of my ancestors. The Panama Canal is Panama. It is our greatest asset,” she said.
Miller said he was frustrated by comments posted on social media by Panamanians about how the U.S. could do a better job of running the canal than Panama.
“The comments come from ignorance,” he said, adding that many young people in his country lack the historical knowledge to understand the importance of the canal to the country.
Miller also said that Trump’s comments about China’s involvement in the canal operations may have arisen because Panama cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 2017 and instead established ties with China.
“We were friends one day, and now we’re hearing, ‘We want your canal,'” he said. “It’s a big change when the U.S. is our biggest trading partner.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said at a news briefing on Wednesday that Trump’s comments about China and the canal are baseless.
“Panama’s sovereignty and independence cannot be compromised, and the Panama Canal is not under the direct or indirect control of any power,” Ning said. “China does not participate in the management or operation of the canal. China has never interfered. We respect Panama’s sovereignty over the canal and permanently recognize it as a neutral international waterway.
Quijano, the former vice president of operations, said he doubted the U.S. could easily operate the canal because an engineer needed 12 years of training to learn the complex system of locks and water lifts that the giant canal would carry. Routes ships.
“If he thinks he’s going to take it back and then we’re going to run it for him, the answer is no,” he said. “All we need to do is respect treaties and the sovereignty of nations.”
Arcia, who grew up near the canal, said Trump needed to change his tone toward Panama: “What we always want is a beautiful relationship of equality, not recognition.”
