The President of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, on Wednesday accused the President of the United States Donald Trump of lying when he said in his speech to Congress that his administration was « recovering » the Panama Canal.
Trump referred to an agreement announced on Tuesday for a consortium led by US investment management company BlackRock Inc. To buy a control participation in the company of the company that has a Chinese group that operates Ports at both ends of the Panama Canal.
Panama maintains that it has a total control over the channel and that the operation of the ports of the Hong Kong group did not mean a Chinese control over the water route, and therefore the sale to an American company would not represent any « recovery » of the United States of the channel. The Panama government called a private transaction on Tuesday.
Mulino In a message published on Wednesday, he rejected that the agreement took place due to the pressure of the United States. « I reject in the name of Panama and all Panamanes, this new faces to the truth and our dignity as a nation, » he wrote. Accused Trump of ‘lying again.’
Trump has talked about reproaching the Panama channel since its campaign, arguing that the United States should never have turned into control in Panameans and that the United States were overloaded to use it.
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The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, met with Mulino in early February and insisted that China had an influence on channel operations. The focus was the Chinese consortium that directed the ports. Panama rejected China had any influence on channel operations.
« Cooperation between our governments is to understand clearly in terms of mutual interest, » Mulino wrote. « It has nothing to do with » claiming the channel « or with the waste of our national sovereignty. »
In a presentation, CK Hutchison Holding said on Tuesday that he would sell all actions at Hutchison Port Holdings and Hutchison Port Group Holdings in the Blackrock Consortium in an agreement of almost $ 23 billion, including debts of $ 5 billion.
The agreement must be approved by the Panama government.
The United States built the channel in the early 1900’s, as it sought ways to facilitate the traffic of commercial and military ships between its shores. Washington resigned from the control of the water road in Panama on December 31, 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter. Trump has stated that Carter « silly » gave the channel.
Frank Sixt, CK Hutchison’s co-managed director, said in a statement that the transaction was « the result of a quick, discreet but competitive process in which numerous offers and expressions of interest were received. »
« I would like to emphasize that the transaction is purely commercial in nature and is completely related to the recent political news reports on the ports of Panama, » said Sixt.
& Copy 2025 The Canadian Press
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