“We, the Panamanian people, have shown our ability to manage the Canal, keeping it open to the world.” A clear programme for the past, the present and the future, according to the Archbishop of Panama Msgr. José Domingo Ulloa Mendieta, President of the Episcopal Conference of Panama, commenting to SIR on the recent repeated statements made by US President-elect Donald Trump in the days leading up to his inauguration. The president-elect declared a few weeks ago: “The United States has been ripped off at the Panama Canal, just as we have been ripped off everywhere”, even suggesting the use of military force to retake control of the Canal, which was built by the United States between 1907 and 1914, opened in 1920 and handed over to Panama in 1999 under the Torrijos-Carter agreements of 1977. “We need it for economic security. It was built for our military,” Trump continued.
An intertwined story and China’s irruption. The ties that bind the United States and the Panama Canal are evidenced by historical events. The creation of the Republic of Panama, which declared its independence from Colombia in 1903 after a short-lived insurrection, was in fact encouraged and supported by the USA, whose last military intervention on the continent took place in 1989 to depose the de facto ruler and dictator of Panama General Manuel Noriega. Having thus become the “owner” of the Canal, Panama entrusted the management of the entry ports, Cristóbal on the Atlantic and Balboa on the Pacific, to a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa, a Hong Kong-based company now under Chinese strict control. This is the case despite the fact that three in four vessels passing through the Canal come from or are bound for US ports. In any case, international treaties provide clarity, and President José Raúl Mulino had good reason to assert that sovereignty over the Canal is “non-negotiable.” Moreover, the Panamanian government did not raise any tensions in anticipation of Trump’s inauguration in the White House.
Ulloa: “A legacy that must be preserved.” Archbishop Ulloa echoed the sentiments of his fellow Panamanians, noting that “the fact that there have been public statements aimed at attacking our sovereignty, ignoring the struggles and sacrifices of generations that have allowed us Panamanians to have one flag for the whole country, is deeply worrying. The then US President Jimmy Carter and General Omar Torrijos signed a treaty establishing that the Panama Canal would be handed over to full Panamanian control. All parties must preserve and respect this legacy. Declarations such as these should serve to transform our great love for Panama into unity and commitment, tearing down walls of hatred and resentment and building bridges of peace and justice,” he said. However, it is hoped that Panama will not be caught in the crossfire between the United States and China. “We are not experts in international relations,” the archbishop said, “but guided always by the light of the Gospel, we place our faith and hope in Jesus, to whom we entrust our prayers that common sense and peace will prevail. This is not the first time we have found ourselves in similar circumstances, but Panama has preserved its freedom and sovereignty over its entire territory, including its Canal. The latter symbolises the affirmation of our nationality; the dream of a free and sovereign state. And this is thanks to the intergenerational struggle of a people, in which our young people have distinguished themselves”. Hence the twofold appeal to the national and international authorities:
“I call on our institutions to assert our sovereignty in concrete and effective ways: by cultivating a true love for our homeland, by consolidating our culture, by integrating the returned territories, by ensuring their full social use and by managing the Canal autonomously. For their part, other countries must respect Panama’s sovereignty over its entire territory. We Panamanians have shown that we are capable of managing and maintaining the neutrality of the Panama Canal, which is open to the world”.
Looming uncertainties and the quest for viable alternatives. However, speaking of the Panama Canal today also means addressing the crisis of recent years, which threatens to become structural in the future. The current El Niño event, with the resulting drought, has seriously affected the Canal’s efficiency in 2023 and early 2024. The water level in Lake Gatún, the reservoir along the 81-kilometre waterway, has dropped dramatically. The passage of ships has been reduced to less than a third, from the normal 38 to 24 transits per day. The return of the La Niña current last year improved the situation, but the future is uncertain, with plans for a new artificial lake to raise the water level in the passage between the two oceans. Uncertainties, new demands for intercontinental trade, geopolitical scenarios and the ‘games’ of the superpowers have, however, led for many years to the search for possible ‘alternatives’ to the Panama Canal, in addition to the one between Canada and Greenland, which was ‘opened’ as a result of climate change.
The only project currently under consideration, and not an easy one to implement, is the one proposed by China to Nicaragua’s autocrat Daniel Ortega. It is best to speak of projects because a long-standing preliminary hypothesis has been definitively abandoned, and last November Ortega presented a new project for a passage from Bluefields, on the Atlantic, to Puerto Corinto, on the Pacific Ocean, via Lake Xolotlán, which overlooks the capital, Managua, instead of the wider Lake Cocibolca, as envisaged in the first project.
In any case, the route would be much longer than that of Panama, stretching a total of 445 kilometres. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz in southern Mexico, is another narrow area where the two oceans meet. In this case, there has been no talk of a water route, but work is underway on a major infrastructural development of the area, with the expansion of the ports of Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos and the creation of a road and, above all, rail transport corridor. Costa Rica is pursuing a similar option with the so-called ‘Canal seco’, which is still at a preliminary stage. Last year, Colombia launched a proposal to construct an interoceanic rail corridor in the Darién region, south of the Panama Canal. However, this is an area currently used mainly by migrant caravans, traffickers and armed gangs.
