Panama Violated Its Canal Treaty

Donald Trump shared an article in the New York Post explaining that Panama violated its Canal treaty by allowing China to move in, risking US safety.

Additionally, the US paid for it, US lives were lost, and Panama did nothing for it. It is currently being run badly. As the author of the article, Paul de Quenoy writes that while the President of Panama said he won’t give up the Canal, they’re “bold words” from “a country with no army and a long history of corruption, including a predecessor, Manuel Noriega, who was ousted by American forces and imprisoned in the US after running Panama as a narcostate.”

The article in the Post is an Opinion piece, but it is interesting and should be explored. From the article:

The waterway, originally an American possession, was given to Panama by President Jimmy Carter in two 1977 treaties that barely passed the two-thirds Senate majority necessary for ratification.

The first treaty obliged Panama to operate the canal neutrally, with nondiscriminatory pricing and allowed the United States to defend it from any threat that might interfere with its neutrality.

The second treaty transferred full control to Panama effective on Dec. 31, 1999, without superseding the first treaty’s broad provision allowing for US defense of this crucial military and economic asset.

In 1996, Panama made a 25-year agreement to outsource management of the canal’s two entry ports — Cristóbal on the Atlantic side and Balboa on the Pacific — to a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa, a Hong Kong-based shipping firm.

Hong Kong is now in China’s hands, and the contract has been renewed.

China is also buying up all the land around the Canal.

By 2022, additional Chinese investment in Panama flooded more than $2.5 billion of Beijing’s capital into the Canal Zone, where more than 40 other Chinese companies now operate, the article states.

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