Panama celebrates 25th anniversary of canal transfer

Panama celebrated on Tuesday the 25th anniversary of the transfer of the interoceanic canal from the United States with an event full of patriotism.

“(The Canal) is going to stay in our hands forever,” said Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino during his ceremony speech.

Mulino strongly rejected Donald Trump’s suggestion Sunday that the U.S. new administration could try to regain control of the canal.

Trump said during a rally that the United States “foolishly” ceded the canal to its Central American ally, contending that shippers are charged “ridiculous” fees to pass through the vital transportation channel linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

During Tuesday’s celebration, Mulino recalled the recently deceased former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who signed the treaties of the historic transfer.

On December 31, 1999, Panamanians took to the streets to participate in an act that marked the reversion of the interoceanic waterway to Panamanian hands after having been administered by the United States for 85 years.

The United States built the Panama canal in the early 1900s, as it looked for ways to facilitate the transit of commercial and military vessels between its coasts.

Washington relinquished control of the waterway to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999, honoring a treaty signed in 1977 under President Jimmy Carter.

Still, Trump said that, once his second term is underway, “If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America, in full, quickly and without question.”

He did not explain how that would be possible.

Panama is a strong U.S. ally and the canal is crucial for its economy, generating about one-fifth of that government’s annual revenue.

The canal depends on reservoirs to operate its locks and was heavily affected by 2023 Central American droughts that forced it to substantially reduce the number of daily slots for crossing ships.

With fewer ships using the canal each day, administrators also increased the fees that are charged to all shippers for reserving a slot.

With weather returning to normal in the later months of this year, transit on the canal has normalized.

But price increases are still expected for next year.