Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino rejected renegotiating a deal allowing U.S. troops access to local facilities despite public uproar.
"Panama's sovereignty is not at stake," said Mulino during his weekly press conference. The statement follows a march on Tuesday where thousands took to the capital to protest against the deal, signed in April during a visit by Defense Minister Pete Hegseth.
"The era of capitulating to coercion by the communist Chinese is over," Hegseth said during the April announcement. "China's growing and adversarial control of strategic land and critical infrastructure in this hemisphere cannot and will not stand.
The U.S. is also defending the deal, clarifying the deal does not allow for the establishment of military bases in the country. Newly-appointed U.S. ambassador to Panama Kevin Marino Cabrera added in a press conference that the deal "is going to strengthen our cooperation against drug trafficking and protect" the Panama Canal, a waterway President Donald Trump has expressed interest in seizing.
The May 6 demonstrations were led by university students, who accused Mulino of compromising national sovereignty. "We feel like our president is acting against the wishes of many Panamanians and in very sensitive affairs," said 30-year-old student Tony Ruiz. "He signs an agreement behind our backs that compromises our sovereignty and our neutrality with the world." Mulino, on his end, dismissed the protests as motivated by political interests.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the 1977 treaties under which the United States transferred control of the canal to Panama in 1999, suggesting the U.S. should take it back. He has also suggested that China's commercial activity in ports near the canal constitutes a threat, calling for U.S. re-engagement. He also celebrated a March announcement that U.S.-based BlackRock would take over Hong Kong-based Hutchison's concession at two Panamanian ports, though the deal was later paused pending a Chinese antitrust review.
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