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Panama Canal

Pentagon Head Makes Military Threats In Visit To Panama

April 10, 2025 La Izquierda Diario Costa Rica, Left Voice. , , , , ,
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.

Trump Orders US Military To Plan Invasion Of Panama To Seize Canal

March 14, 2025 Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams. , , , ,
President Donald Trump has directed the Pentagon to prepare plans for carrying out his threat to "take back" the Panama Canal, including by military force if needed, two U.S. officials familiar with the situation told NBC News Thursday. According to the outlet, the officials said that U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) is drawing up potential plans that run the gamut from working more closely with Panama's military to a less likely scenario in which U.S. troops invade the country and take the canal by force. They also said that SOUTHCOM commander Adm. Alvin Holsey has presented draft strategies to be reviewed by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is scheduled to visit Panama next month.

Trump Helps BlackRock Buy Panama Canal Ports To Weaken China

March 6, 2025 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , , , , , , , ,
The Donald Trump administration has made it clear that the top two priorities of the US government are to weaken China and to strengthen Wall Street. The small Central American nation of Panama has found itself at the center of Trump’s strategy. In his inauguration speech on January 20, the US president falsely claimed that “China is operating the [Panama] canal”, and he insisted “we’re taking it back”. In a press conference two weeks before, Trump implied that he was willing to use military force to take over the canal if Panama refused to give the United States effective control.

Trump Wants US To ‘Partner’ With Russia To Weaken China

February 24, 2025 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
The Donald Trump administration is holding talks between the United States and Russia, and he says he wants to end the war in Ukraine. Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio has even proposed that the US could “partner with the Russians, geopolitically”. What is happening here? The simple answer is that this is all about China. Trump is trying to divide Russia from China, in an attempt to isolate Beijing. The United States sees China as the number one threat to its global dominance. This has been stated clearly by top officials in both the Trump administration and the previous Joe Biden administration.

US Seizing Panama And Greenland Aimed At China

February 17, 2025 Brian Berletic, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , , , , ,
While a recent interview with the newly confirmed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio began with promising slogans, it quickly unraveled into threats of overt aggression, including outright calls to seize the Panama Canal and annex Greenland from Denmark under an implicit threat of military force. While the change in presidential administration is purely superficial, the intense urgency it pursues continuity of agenda with is not. It reflects the rapid rise of China, Russian resilience in the face of US proxy war in Ukraine, and an expanding multipolar world overwriting the US-led unipolar world order at ever-increasing speeds.

Panama Tries Compromise; US Says It’s Not Enough

February 4, 2025 John Perry, Consortium News. , , , , , ,
After intense pressure by the U.S. on Panama to return possession of its canal to Washington because the Trump administration thinks China is threatening it, the Central American nation on Sunday sought a compromise by announcing it would study whether or not to renew contracts with a Chinese company managing two ports on the waterway and would withdraw from China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The announcement was made by Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Panama City.

Panama: Self-Determination And National Popular Unity

February 2, 2025 Abdiel Rodríguez Reyes, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , , ,
The peoples have the right to decide their own collective destiny as established by the Bandung Conference in 1955 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966, which was not gratuitous but a product of the struggle of the peripheral countries for their decolonization. Amid this reality, the United States never gave up extending the Monroe Doctrine to the present day. Making the situation worse, imperial irredentism becomes explicit with President Donald Trump. The Panamanian people’s distrust of the political elite at this juncture is being reproduced in the collective imagination in a marked disinterest in Trump’s imperial irredentism.

Panamanian Movements Vow To Resist Trump’s Threats

January 21, 2025 People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Panamanian movements have expressed their readiness to resist US President Donald Trump’s threats to Panama’s sovereignty. On January 20, as part of a mobilization of trade unions and social movements in Panama City in defense of the public pension system, they will also denounce the expansionist threats of Trump. At a rally in December, Trump said that the fees being charged at the Panama canal are too high and that if they did not come down, “we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, quickly and without question.”

The Panama Canal: From Teddy Roosevelt To Donald Trump

January 2, 2025 Workers World. , , ,
Just what is motivating President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to take over the Panama Canal, buy Greenland and make Canada the 51st U.S. state? Does he think he can impose a new historic era of U.S. domination, or is he simply following in the footsteps of his imperialist predecessors — Republicans and Democrats alike? During his first term, Trump’s “America First” policy was purportedly based on U.S. isolationism. Is his recent demand that the Panama Canal “be returned to us, in full, quickly and without question,” an indication his second term has emboldened him to assert U.S. interests abroad more aggressively?

ALBA-TCP Condemns Trump’s Statements About Panama Canal

December 28, 2024 Ultimas Noticias, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , ,
On Tuesday, the member states of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) expressed their strongest condemnation of United States President-elect Donald Trump’s statement in which he threatened to take control of the Panama Canal. Through a statement published on Telegram, the multilateral bloc condemned this new threat to the Latin American and Caribbean region. It also reaffirmed its support for the Republic of Panama in defending its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and self-determination.

Trump’s Christmas Message Is One Of Chaos, Turbulence And Retaliation

December 26, 2024 Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. , , , , , , ,
Letting no holiday opportunity go without stirring up chaos, turbulence and retaliation, by mid-morning on Christmas Day, President-elect Trump posted a series of insensitive, brazen and mean spirited “Merry Christmas” messages on his Truth Social platform. These posts for both national and international issues were followed, predictably, by over two dozen re-posts of articles or other social media posts forecasting his political agenda on topics including troubled Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth and his designation of Greenland and the Panama Canal as U.S. national security necessities, tariffs on Mexico and Canada, and reinstatement of the federal death penalty that Biden had suspended.