U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s statements on the Panama Canal angered Panamanian President José Raul Mulino, who responded that every inch of Panama will continue to belong to the country.
Panamanian President José Raul Mulino reacts to US President-elect Donald Trump’s remarks that the United States is “being blackmailed” in the Panama Canal.
Mulino said in the video that “every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and will continue to belong to Panama.” He further said that “tariffs are not set on a whim.” “Panamanians may be divided on many issues. There are different views. But when it comes to our canal and our sovereignty, we are united under the Panamanian flag,” he said, noting that the fee increase would help improve revenue.
“We’ll see!” Trump fired back on the social media site. The president-elect also posted a photo of an American flag in the Canal Zone with the words “Welcome to America’s Canals!” The U.S.-built canal in the early 1900s The United States ceded control of the canal to Panama on December 31, 1999, under a treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977.
The canal relies on reservoirs affected by a drought in 2023, forcing it to drastically reduce the number of daily ship crossings. As the number of ships drops, managers also raise fees for shippers to reserve slots in the canal.
First came Canada, then the Panama Canal. Now, Donald Trump wants Greenland, too.
The president-elect reiterated his unsuccessful call during his first term for the United States to buy Greenland from Denmark, adding to the list of allies he defied before taking office on January 20. one.
“The United States of America believes it is absolutely necessary to possess and control Greenland for the sake of national security and freedom around the world,” Trump wrote in a statement appointing an ambassador to Denmark on Sunday. The Greenland issue comes after the president-elect said over the weekend, The United States could regain control of the Panama Canal if steps are not taken to ease the rising shipping costs needed to connect the Atlantic and Pacific waterways.
He also proposed that Canada become the 51st state of the United States and called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the “governor” of the “great Canadian state.” Greenland is the world’s largest island, located between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. 80% of the area here is covered by ice sheets and is home to a large US military base. It gained autonomy from Denmark in 1979, and its head of government, Múte Bourup Egede, said Trump’s latest calls for U.S. control would be as negative as those during his first term. There’s no point in doing that.
“Greenland is ours. We are not selling it and we never will,” he said in a statement. “We must not lose years of struggle for freedom.” Trump canceled a 2019 visit to Denmark after an offer to buy Greenland was rejected by Copenhagen and ultimately fell through.
“If the moral and legal principles of this generous gesture of donation are not adhered to, then we will demand the full, swift and unquestionable return of the Panama Canal to the United States of America,” he said.
Before the events in Greenland and Panama, Trump recently tweeted that “Canadians want Canada to be the 51st country,” and provided a photo of himself superimposed on a mountaintop surveying the surrounding territory next to the Canadian flag.
Trudeau suggested Trump was joking by annexing his country, but the two recently met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to discuss Trump’s threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods.
With input from The Associated Press