Panama President José Raúl Mulino on Wednesday accused President Trump of lying when he said in his address to Congress that his administration was "reclaiming" the Panama Canal. Trump was referencing a deal announced Tuesday for a consortium led by the US investment management company BlackRock Inc. to buy a controlling stake in the company held by a Chinese group that operates ports at both ends of the Panama Canal. In a message posted to X on Wednesday, Mulino denied the deal came about because of US pressure. "I reject in the name of Panama and all Panamanians this new affront to the truth and our dignity as a nation," he wrote. He accused Trump of "lying again."
Panama maintains that it has full control over the canal and that the Hong Kong-based group's operation of the ports did not amount to Chinese control over the waterway, so the sale to a US-based company would not represent any US "reclaiming" of the canal. "The Panama Canal is not in the process of being reclaimed," Mulino said, per Reuters. "The Canal is Panamanian and will continue to be Panamanian!" Panama's government on Tuesday called the sale a private transaction.
Trump has talked about retaking the Panama Canal since his campaign, arguing that the US should have never turned control over to the Panamanians and that the US was being overcharged for using it. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Mulino in early February and insisted that China was exerting influence over the canal's operations; Panama rejected that allegation. "Cooperation between our governments passes through clear understandings in terms of issues of mutual interest," Mulino wrote. "It doesn't have anything to do with 'reclaiming the canal' nor with tarnishing our national sovereignty."
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