Trump threatens to ‘seek the return’ of the Panama Canal: What is its history, significance? | Explaining the News

The long post also talked about the history of the canal and said, “When President Jimmy Carter gave the foolish, One Dollar… it was only for Panama to manage, not China, or anyone else.”

What is the Panama Canal and why is it important to the US?

The construction of the Panama Canal had long been considered, simply because moving from one ocean to another around the tip of South America was expensive and time-consuming.

Panama canal map.

It was built between 1904 and 1914, mainly due to US efforts. Until then, building a canal was considered difficult due to the region’s uniquely challenging terrain. France had previously abandoned similar efforts because of their high costs.

But that did not discourage the United States. President Theodore Roosevelt, in his address to Congress, said of this work, “No great work of material will yet be done on this continent … of such consequence to the American people.”

Colombia controlled Panama until 1903, when a US-backed coup helped Panama gain independence. In exchange, the US received rights to build and operate the canal and permanent rights to the Panama Canal Zone through the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903.

However, according to the website of the US government’s Office of Historical Database, the representative of Panama entered the negotiations without official permission from his government and had not lived in Panama for 17 years. This led many Panamanians to question the legitimacy of the agreement.

What was the role of the US in the construction of the Panama Canal?

The US solution to the engineering problem was a system of “keys”, or rooms with entrance and exit doors. The locks act as water lifts: they lift ships from the sea to the level of Gatun Lake (26 meters above sea level); thus, ships pass through the canal. This video shows how the system works:

Although the construction efforts were ultimately successful, they came at a cost – more than $300 million in what was at the time the most expensive construction project in US history, and the lives of thousands of workers.

Today, the canal registers about 14,000 transports a year, although the number has decreased due to the drying up of the lake in recent years. About 6 percent of world trade (in value) passes through it.

Why did the US give up the Panama Canal?

Since the opening of the canal, its control has been a point of contention between Panama and the US, with riots in the area in 1964. Many negotiations are attempted.

In the 1970s, presidential candidate Jimmy Carter also opposed the treaty, but after his election victory in 1976, his opinion changed. The following year, the Torrijos-Carter accords were signed, giving the US the power to militarily defend the Panama Canal against “any threat to its neutrality”. In addition, the Panama Canal Zone will cease to exist on October 1, 1979, and the Canal will be turned over to the Panamanian people on December 31, 1999. There is no mention of the “One Dollar” Trump mentioned in his post.

Trump said in his tweet that by doing so, the US provided “extraordinary generosity” to Panama. “If the principles, moral and legal, of this great act of philanthropy are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in full, and without hesitation,” he wrote.

Former Harvard Business School professor Noel Maure, author of this book The Great Canal: How America Took, Built, Ran, and Ended the Panama Canalexplained the reasons why the US acquired and relinquished its control in a 2010 interview.

“By keeping the Panama Canal in American hands, the United States ensured that shipping rates would remain low. [it] ensure that most of the surplus will flow to American producers and consumers.”

However, in the 1970s, the canal began to lose economic value in the US. “On the other hand, the canal was pressured by rising costs due to the mismanagement of the United States. The Panama Canal workers actually captured the management of the canal and used it to their advantage: wages went up, as did costs and accident rates, and managers didn’t even bother to do simple things like deepening the shallows or installing lights. In this case, the canal workers were greatly helped by the canal’s unusual place in the American national myth.”

Furthermore, the neutrality treaty was already in place, helping the US strategically, so there was no further need for the US to act.

“That’s why (former US President) Harry Truman first proposed ‘breaking the Big Ditch,’ and (Presidents) Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford all made major efforts to negotiate a surrender. That said, it took Jimmy Carter’s willingness to cut endless deals and risk political suicide to get the Panama Canal deal through the Senate. The reason was that the majority of American public opinion was against the Panama Canal agreements, but their motivation was American nationalism to protect, not to protect the American country, “said Maure.

Trump also indicated that China should not manage the canal, possibly referring to its growth in the region. Daniel F. Runde, Senior Vice President at the think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in 2021 that “Chinese companies have been heavily involved in infrastructure-related contracts in and around the Canal in Panama’s transportation, electricity, and construction sectors. .”

It is also associated with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project which is interested in funding infrastructure projects in developing countries. South America, a region often seen by the US as an area of ​​influence, has seen Chinese investment grow over the past decade. Just last month, Peru was founded a major shipyard built and owned by China in Chancay. Panama, on the other hand, was the first Latin American country to sign the BRI in 2018.