Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino has accused his US counterpart Donald Trump of “lying” about Washington taking back the Panama canal.
“Once again, President Trump is lying. The Panama Canal is not in the process of recovery,” Mulino wrote on X.
“I reject, on behalf of Panama and all Panamanians, this new affront to the truth and to our dignity as a nation,” Mulino wrote on Wednesday, after Trump said that his administration had started to take back the vital waterway.
“To further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama canal, and we’ve already started doing it,” Trump said in his speech to Congress on Tuesday. “We’re taking it back.”
Trump’s comments came hours after – under mounting pressure from Washington –the Hong Kong firm Hutchison said it had agreed to sell its lucrative Panama canal ports to a US-led consortium.
CK Hutchison Holdings said it would offload a 90% stake in the Panama Ports Company (PPC) and sell a slew of other non-Chinese ports to a group led by the asset manager BlackRock.
The sellers will receive $19bn in cash, the company said.
CK Hutchison insisted the deal was unrelated to Trump’s vow to “take back” the canal, but few in Panama believe this to be the case.
Hutchison subsidiary PPC has for decades run ports at Balboa and Cristóbal on the Pacific and Atlantic ends of the interoceanic waterway.
But since taking office in January, Trump has complained that China controls the canal – a vital strategic asset that the United States once ran.
He has refused to rule out a military invasion of Panama to regain control, sparking angry protests and a complaint to the United Nations by the Central American country.
Since 1999, the canal has been run by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) – an autonomous entity whose board of directors is appointed by Panama’s president and national assembly.
The 80km (50-mile) long canal handles 5% of global maritime trade, and 40% of US container traffic.
Beijing has consistently denied interfering in the canal.
“The canal is run by Panamanians 100%. We are an autonomous entity,” Ilya Espino de Marotta, the Panama canal’s deputy administrator, told the Guardian in January. “There is no Chinese management of the canal.”
