27th of January, 2025. International News. Latin America. USA.
Last updated: January 27, 2025 at 14:04 pm
The Panama Canal is an artificial 82-kilometer (51-mile) waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean (via the Caribbean Sea) to the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the Isthmus of Panama, serving as a critical maritime shortcut. The Panama Canal is owned and controlled by the Republic of Panama. Specifically, it is managed by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), a Panamanian government agency.
Control of the canal was transferred from the United States to Panama on December 31, 1999, as part of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties signed in 1977. Since then, Panama has successfully operated and maintained the canal, which remains a vital international shipping route.
Although the French was the first to attempt to build the Panama Canal in the late 1800s, the effort failed due to harsh conditions such as vector borne diseases which caused the deaths of thousands of French workers. The initial attempt to build the canal was led by the French under the leadership of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the engineer who successfully built the Suez Canal. The project failed due to financial mismanagement, tropical diseases like malaria and yellow fever, and the challenges of the terrain. Over 22,000 workers died during this effort, and the French company eventually went bankrupt.
After the French failure, the United States took over the project in 1904, following the U.S.-backed Panamanian independence from Colombia in 1903, and successfully completed it on August 1914. The United States controlled the Panama Canal until 1999 when it was transferred to the Republic of Panama by virtue of the Torrijos-Carter Treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter.
It is important to note here that what is now called the Republic of Panama was once part of Colombia. However, in order to take control of the Panama Canal, the United States incited a fraction of the people living on that part of the country to break off from Colombia. The United States backed the “people of Panama” in their “fight for Independence” from Colombia, which they won. That is how the US built and controlled the Panama Canal up to 1999.
Just days after President Jimmy Carter’s death, however, upon taking office, President Donald Trump said in January 2025 that the United States will reclaim ownership of the Panama Canal. At the same time, he started to deport undocumented immigrants from all parts of the world back to their homeland. This led to a feud between him and Colombian President Gustavo Petro who was outraged at the way deportees were being handled by the United States and who initially said he would not accept deportation planes into Colombia. Gustavo later caved after Trump announced a series of economic sanctions on Colombia including revocation of Petro’s US visa.
Petro lashed back at Trump citing racism and fascism, and said he is not too keen about traveling to the USA. Further, Petro remarked that Colombia is ready to fight the United States for control of the Panama Canal if they attempt to reclaim it.
US President Donald Trump has recently drawn the ire of Brazilian President Lula Da Silva after a US plane landed Brazilians deported from the US on Brazilian soil in handcuffs. Lula said that Trump will have to issue an apology and condemned the treatment meted out by the United States to his citizens.
Although Petro is not necessarily a special friend of Nicolas Maduro, this recent move by the United States, combined with Maduro’s animosity for the United States, might forge a bond between the two Latin American leaders and unite them in the “noble” cause of defending the Panama Canal.
Further, Brazil is now run by a President of communist ideology who is in the process of joining the BRICS block of nations which is aimed at toppling the US dollar as the world’s default reserve currency. Given this and other factors, Brazil is unlikely to lend support to the United States in its ambition to reclaim control of the Panama Canal.
A combination of Colombian, Venezuelan, and Brazilian armed forces would pose a strong deterrent to the United States in its quest to reclaim the Panama Canal, and is unlikely to result in a US victory given all the other external and internal factors. An armed conflict of this nature is likely to result in significant loss of life and infrastructure. Given all of the above factors, one would be inclined to say, “let the Panama Canal stay put,” because Trump would face serious challenges if he attempts to reclaim it by force.
