Trump threatens to retake Panama Canal

[highplainsdem]

Source: Politico

President-elect Donald Trump threatened on Saturday that the U.S. would reassume control of the Panama Canal if it felt that Panama wasn’t honoring the terms of a 1977 treaty regarding the waterway’s legal status.

In two lengthy Truth Social posts Saturday evening, Trump accused Panama of charging U.S. vessels exorbitant rates to pass through the critical waterway. He also claimed that the treaties enabling Panama to take control of the canal in the first place also allow for the U.S. to take it back.

-snip-

But after decades of tensions around the canal, the Carter administration signed two treaties in 1977 with Panama’s military dictator, Omar Torrijos, to transition control of the vital shipping passage over to Panama. Under the terms of those treaties, Panama would gain control of the canal by 1999 and the U.S. would retain the right to defend the canal from any threat to its neutrality.

Analysts, however, do not believe that those provisions in the treaty would allow for the United States to legally retake control of the canal.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/21/trump-panama-canal-00195820

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Full text of Trump's messages here:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219841758