As he gears up to retake the presidency of the United States this month, Donald Trump has spontaneously begun threatening to retake the Panama Canal, as well.
Per the incoming president’s recent tantrums on social media, Panama is “ripping off” the US with “ridiculous” fees to use the interoceanic waterway and principal conduit for global commerce. As Trump sees it, the Central American country’s behaviour is especially objectionable “knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the US”.
Trump has also baselessly alleged that Chinese troops are currently operating the canal. In reality, of course, the Panama Canal was previously operated by none other than the United States, which built the canal at the beginning of the 20th century and only handed over control to Panama in 1999.
As for the “extraordinary generosity” allegedly extended to the country by the friendly local superpower, just recall the US military’s so-called “Operation Just Cause”, launched in December 1989, thanks to which the impoverished neighbourhood of El Chorrillo in the Panamanian capital of Panama City earned the moniker “Little Hiroshima”.
Up to several thousand civilians were killed in the maniacal display of firepower, a practice run for the upcoming US war on Iraq. For his part, Panamanian leader and former US buddy Manuel Noriega surrendered to US forces on January 3, 1990, after his stay at the Vatican embassy in Panama City had been soundly disrupted by a playlist of musical torture blasting from the US tanks parked outside. Selected tunes included Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” and Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive”.
Noriega was carted off to Miami to face drug trafficking and other charges – never mind his lengthy history on the CIA payroll despite full US knowledge of said narco-activity. His removal meanwhile paved the way for far greater involvement in the international drug trade by Panama’s ruling class.
Just call it “extraordinary generosity”.
As for earlier bouts of generosity, the US from 1903 until 1979 presided over a de facto colony by the name of the Panama Canal Zone, which encompassed a significant portion of Panamanian territory and abided by a system of racial segregation that persisted even after such things were officially abolished in the US proper. The Canal Zone also played host to all manner of US military bases and other installations such as the notorious US Army School of the Americas, attended by many a Latin American dictator and death squad leader as well as by Noriega himself.
The United States completed the construction of the Panama Canal in 1914 – an undertaking that claimed countless thousands