Trump threatens to demand return of Panama Canal: What is its history, significance? | Breaking news

Long’s post also spoke about the history of the canal, saying, “When President Jimmy Carter foolishly gave it away for a dollar … it was only for Panama to manage, not China or anyone else.”

What is the Panama Canal and why is it important to America?

The construction of the Panama Canal had long been envisioned, simply because it was expensive and time-consuming to move from one ocean to another at the tip of South America.

Panama Canal Map.

It was built between 1904 and 1914, largely thanks to American efforts. Until then, building a canal was considered difficult due to the region’s uniquely challenging geography. France had previously abandoned similar efforts due to high costs.

But that didn’t stop the United States. President Theodore Roosevelt said of the project in a speech to Congress, “Any great physical work yet to be done on this continent … is of such consequence to the American people.”

Colombia controlled Panama until 1903, when an American-backed coup helped Panama gain independence. In return, the United States gained the right to build and operate the canal and permanent possession of the Panama Canal Zone through the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903.

However, according to the US Government Office of the Historian website, the Panamanian representative entered the negotiations without the formal consent of his government and had not lived in Panama for 17 years. This led many Panamanians to question the validity of the treaty.

What was the role of the United States in the construction of the Panama Canal?

The American solution to the engineering problem was a system of “locks,” or compartments with entrance doors and exit doors. The locks act as water lifts: they raise ships from sea level to the level of Gatun Lake (26 meters above sea level); Thus, ships navigate through the canal channel. This video shows how the system works:

Although the construction efforts were ultimately successful, they came at a cost—more than $300 million in what was the most expensive construction project in American history, and the lives of thousands of workers.

Today, the canal registers 14,000 transits a year, although the number has declined. Due to drying up of the lake in recent years. It accounts for about 6 percent (by value) of world trade.

Why did America give the Panama Canal?

Since the opening of the canal, its control has been a point of contention between Panama and the United States, with riots in the area in 1964. Several conversations were attempted.

In the 1970s, presidential candidate Jimmy Carter also opposed the treaty, but his views changed after his election victory in 1976. The following year, the Torrijos-Carter Pact was signed, giving the US the power to militarily defend the Panama Canal against “any threat to its neutrality”. Furthermore, the Panama Canal Zone will exist on October 1, 1979, and the canal will be handed over to Panamanians on December 31, 1999. There is no mention of the “one dollar” that Trump referred to in his post.

Trump said in his post that in doing so, the US had granted Panama “extraordinary generosity”. “If both the moral and legal principles of this grand gesture of giving are not followed, we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in full and without question,” he wrote.

Former Harvard Business School professor Noel Maurey, author of the book The Big Ditch: How America Took, Built, Ran, and Finally Gave Up the Panama CanalIn a 2010 interview, the US explained the reasons behind gaining and relinquishing control.

“By placing the Panama Canal in American hands, the United States ensured that transit rates would remain low.. (It) ensured that most of the surplus would flow to American producers and consumers.”

However, by the 1970s, the canal began to lose economic value to the US. “On the one hand, the canal was squeezed by rising costs due to American disarray. Panama Canal workers in essence took over the canal management and ran it for their own benefit: wages went up, along with costs and accident rates, and the administration didn’t even bother to do simple things like installing shallow drafts or lights. In this the canal workers were greatly aided by the canal’s special place in America’s national mythology.

Also, the neutrality treaty was already in place, supporting the US strategically, so there was no additional need for the US to operate it.

“That’s why (former U.S. President) Harry Truman first proposed ‘Bridging the Big Gap,’ and (Presidents) Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford all made serious efforts to negotiate a handover. That said, it took the Panama Canal Treaties through the Senate.” It took Jimmy Carter’s willingness to cut endless deals and risk political suicide because a large swath of American public opinion opposed the Panama Canal Treaty. But their motivation was defensive American nationalism, not American national defense,” Murray said.

Trump also noted that China should not manage the canal, addressing its growing influence in the region. Daniel F. Runde, senior vice president of the think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in 2021 that “Chinese companies are heavily involved in infrastructure deals in and around the canal in Panama’s logistics, electricity and construction sectors. .”

It is also related to China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project that funds infrastructure projects in developing countries. South America, traditionally viewed by the US as its sphere of influence, has seen an increase in Chinese investment over the past decade. Peru was inaugurated only last month A huge China-built and owned shipping terminal in Chancay. Panama, meanwhile, was the first Latin American country to sign the BRI in 2018.