Panama denies that the Canal is controlled by China, as Trump claimed

The former president of the USA donald trump (2017-2021) assured that by Panama Canal “controls it China”, which was rejected this Thursday by analysts in the Central American country, who saw that statement as an expression of the ignorance of the American politician.

The main means of Panama published or reproduced this Thursday part of an interview published on Wednesday on the social network X (formerly Twitter) in which Trump, 77, complained again that USA built the Canal at the beginning of the last century, he sold it, according to him, “for a dollar” to Panama in 1999, and that the road is now the “controls China”.

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Even the Panamanian star and activist ruben blades quoted in his X account an excerpt from the Trump interview: “… we cannot allow them to ruin (the Chinese) the Panama Canal. We built the Panama Canal, they should never have given it to Panama”.

Trump is the overwhelming favorite in next year’s Republican primary and faces criminal prosecution for allegedly trying to reverse the results of the 2020 election that led to his successor, the democrat Joe Bidento the power.

A comment denoting “ignorance”

Several political commentators rejected the statements of the former Republican president in the morning news gatherings. No Panamanian authority had referred to the issue this Thursday.

The one with Trump”It was an unfortunate comment, which denotes bad faith and ignorance”, the economist and university professor told EFE Philip Argote.

“We Panamanians manage the Canal, and we do it much more efficiently than when it was managed by the American Army. It is shameful that a former president of the United States reflects so much ignorance”, he added.

In 85 years of US operation (1914-1999), Panama received just over 1,500 million dollars from the Canal, which in the hands of the Panamanian State has contributed more than 20,000 million to the treasury.

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For Carlos Guevara Manndirector of the graduate program in International Affairs at Florida State University (FSU) in Panama, “Former President Trump’s assertions are somewhat exaggerated, but they point to a real fact, which is the growing Chinese influence in Panama, which is a danger to the country”.

“We Panamanians have struggled for generations to operate the waterway and receive its adjacent areas. The Chinese Communist Party is trying to gain control of a route through the Central American isthmus and has long been eyeing the Panama Canal”, he added.

Panama and China established diplomatic relations in 2017, to the detriment of taiwan.

It’s not the first time

It is not the first time that Trump has spoken about the Panama Canal and regrets that it was transferred to the Panamanian State on December 31, 1999, as established in the agreements signed in 1977 by the president Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) and the de facto ruler of Panama Omar Torrijos (1968-1981).

In March 2011, when the first hotel for the Trump organization was being built in the Central American country outside of USAthe tycoon declared that his country gave him “stupidly” to Panama the Canal “for nothing”.

Because of these statements, made on American television, the municipal Council from the Panamanian capital declared Trump a person “non grata”.

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Trump inaugurated in Panama in July 2011 the lavish Trump Ocean Cluban impressive building in the shape of an unfolded sail, with 70 floors and 250,000 square meters of construction, on an afternoon marked by a heavy downpour that totally flooded the area and left many guests, including the tycoon, trapped in their luxury cars.

A few years later and after a legal battle, the hotel passed into other hands and since 2018 it is a JW Marriott.

In November 2017, a report by the organization Global Witness He denounced that the construction of the Trump Ocean Club was used to allegedly launder money from drugs and Russian mafias, and that Trump would have benefited from this.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.