Pete Hegseth pledged that the Trump administration would “take back” the Panama Canal to contest “China’s influence.”
On Tuesday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visited Panama to attend the Central American Security Conference, an initiative of the U.S. military’s Southern Command (SOUTHCOM). SOUTHCOM is one of the 11 unified combatant commands in the U.S. Department of Defense, responsible for contingency planning, operations, and security cooperation in Central and South America and the Caribbean.
During the conference, Hegseth announced a series of joint military operations with the Panamanian military, scheduled to take place from April 8 to 10.
The conference was held at the Vasco Nuñez de Balboa Naval Base, formerly Rodman Naval Station, which the United States controlled for decades. There, Hegseth said his objectives are to strengthen the defense and security of the Panama Canal in response to China’s influence.
“China-based companies continue to control critical infrastructure in the canal zone,” Hegseth said. “This gives China the ability to conduct surveillance activities in Panama. This makes Panama and the United States less safe, less prosperous, and less sovereign. And as President Donald Trump has pointed out, that situation is unacceptable.”
It is evident that the country initiating military operations and making threats of invasion is the United States, not China. According to the Defense Department, the military operations launched by SOUTHCOM, in collaboration with the Panamanian military, will include “crews of four F-18 Hornets, one C-130 Hercules, and one P-8 Poseidon aircraft, the USS Chosin and USS Normandy, and the Coast Guard cutter Kimball will arrive in Panama,” along with “50 members of the U.S. Marine Corps,” who are “in Panama to train with Panamanian forces.”
These exercises will occur in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
The operations are part of Trump’s agenda to reassert U.S. influence and control over Central America, particularly Panama, as control of the canal has significant economic and geopolitical implications in the trade war initiated by Trump against China. Pressure on the region has been intense, with countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama facilitating the detention of migrants expelled from the United States, stripping them of their passports and basic democratic rights.
This visit follows Marco Rubio’s trip last month amid heightened tensions, as some media reported that Trump instructed SOUTHCOM to prepare plans to seize the Panama Canal by force if necessary.
Panamanians Defend Their Canal and Fight Austerity
While President José Raúl Mulino signed a joint declaration with Hegseth to “protect” the canal, Panamanians took to the streets to protest against Hegseth and Trump’s imperialist plans for Panama.
On Wednesday, demonstrations organized by Pueblo Unido por la Vida, a coalition of several unions, protested Hegseth’s presence in defense of the Canal. They held signs declaring, “The canal is ours!”
The demonstrators also protested U.S. plans to build a new military base in Panama, including naval enclaves in Coco Solo and Rodman, an air base in Howard, and a land base in Darien, all under the pretext of combating drug trafficking and organized crime. The protests also rejected Mulino’s government, which has faithfully backed Trump’s aggressive policies. The mobilized people denounced him as a “vendepatria,” or sellout.
Protesters also voiced grievances with Mulino’s government, encompassing issues from austerity and attacks on social security to environmental concerns.
International Solidarity with the Oppressed People of Panama
The U.S. Defense Department has stated that “all bilateral cooperation activities have the authorization of the Panamanian government and are carried out with the highest respect for the Panamanian people and the sovereignty of Panama.”
After Trump’s serious threats to take the canal by force if necessary and against the will of the Panamanian people, Mulino’s authorization represents a total surrender and a sign of his pro-imperialist stance. Politicians like Mulino represent an oligarchy that has profited for decades from the wealth generated by the canal, wealth that has never benefited the Panamanian working people.
U.S. military operations are conducted against the Panamanian people and their sovereignty. It is misleading to suggest they are meant to fight crime. The current threat of violence comes from the U.S., as historically evidenced by the 1989 invasion.
To counter Trump, we need a renewed internationalism to reject imperialism in our countries while our working-class siblings in North America raise their voices in solidarity. Historically, class struggle in Latin America has been rooted in anti-imperialism, uniting the peoples of the region: workers, peasants, indigenous communities, and students. We must unite our struggles against our common enemy.
The Panama Canal should be fully under the control of the Panamanian working people, not the U.S. The imperialist military presence and all related plans must be rejected by all Central American workers, and we must be prepared to mobilize in defense of the canal for the Panamanian people. We call on the unions of the region, as well as indigenous people, farmers, and community organizations, to organize mobilizations to confront Trump’s warmongering policies against the Panamanian working people.