Trump's 'Panama Canal China Illegal' Noriega 'Reenactment' of 1989 Invasion
On December 25th last year, US President-elect Trump announced on his social media, Truth Social, "Merry Christmas to everyone, including the wonderful Chinese soldiers who are operating the Panama Canal illegally."
When President Carter, a Democrat, visited Panama in June 1978 to sign a treaty to hand over the Panama Canal, he declared, "We are at the threshold of a new era."
On January 3rd, 1990, Noriega, the commander-in-chief of Panama, walked out of the Vatican embassy, where he had been hiding, after the US military surrounded it with barbed wire, and was arrested by the Drug Enforcement Administration and sent to the US, where he was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The Panama Canal is a passageway for 40% of the US container volume and 90% of military supplies transported by merchant ships, and both sides have invested in the port and control the port operation rights through large capital from Hong Kong.
During the Republican Reagan-Bush regime, Panama was refusing to accept the defeat of dictator Noriega in the May 1989 general election, and the US imposed sanctions on him. In October, a coup by a small-scale military officer was carried out, and on December 20, at midnight, the US suddenly invaded Panama.
The US recognized the pro-US government led by Guillermo Endara, who had lost the opportunity to take power due to the invalidation of Noriega's election, despite his certain victory in the May general election, and lifted all economic sanctions against Panama that had been in effect previously.
Commander-in-Chief Manuel Noriega gave a speech on state radio, saying, "We are now waging trench warfare and our resistance will continue." For three days, amid sporadic resistance by the Panamanian military, Noriega fled to the Vatican embassy and requested asylum. The US military surrounded the Vatican embassy with tanks and barbed wire and installed large loudspeakers to play loud music, pressuring the siege. The following year, on January 3, Noriega walked out of the Vatican embassy at 8:50 p.m., was arrested by agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in a white military uniform, and was sent to Miami, USA, where he was sentenced to 40 years in prison after a trial.
On February 5, 1988, the Reagan administration indicted Manuel Noriega, the real power behind the Panama Canal dispute, on drug trafficking charges in a federal court in Miami, and Noriega accused the US of trying to eliminate him in order to take control of the Panama Canal.
On February 25, Panamanian President Eric Abaturo Del Valle, who was visiting the US, announced the dismissal of Noriega, the US imposed economic sanctions, US soldiers were killed, and the Bush regime began a surprise invasion, which ended with the US military’s victory and a pro-US government. Trump-Vance administration transition team spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement that “China’s control of the Panama Canal is an absolute national security threat to the US.” He cited US Southern Command commander General Laura J. Richardson’s testimony to Congress last year that China’s infrastructure investment serves as a “future multi-domain access point” for the Chinese military.
The Panama Canal was built by the US in the early 20th century, but was returned to the Panamanian government in 1999 under an agreement signed by President Jimmy Carter, and has long been a source of consternation for some Republican lawmakers, including his successor, Californian President Reagan.
“Port influence is important for a variety of reasons, including political influence, economic influence and the potential for surveillance,” Michael R. Wessel, a former member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a government agency that studied port security issues, told The New York Times on Monday. “Ninety percent of U.S. military cargo moves on merchant ships, which gives port operators insight when the government is ramping up operations in a particular area,” he said. Port ownership can also provide clues about how the U.S. government screens cargo for security risks, which can make it easier to avoid those efforts, he added. “Being a port or terminal operator gives you access to or the ability to know what the U.S. government is looking for and which containers might be subject to additional evaluation,” he said. The New York Times reported that “most of the attention of U.S. officials has been focused on the two ports at either end of the Panama Canal, through which 40 percent of U.S. container traffic passes,” and that “the ports have been operated for decades by Hutchison Ports PPC, a division of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings, a publicly traded conglomerate whose majority owner is a Hong Kong billionaire family, not the Chinese government.”
The New York Times continued that “China has extended its national security law to Hong Kong, and Beijing has recently shown a willingness to weaponize its supply chains, which has led U.S. officials on both sides to increasingly worry that Beijing could use its influence over private companies to disrupt the flow of commercial and military supplies in the event of war.” The Panama Canal is deeply entrenched in the conflict between Republicans and Democrats in the United States.
In the fiercely contested 1976 presidential election, Republican candidate Reagan used “control of the Panama Canal” as a strong line of attack when he challenged President Gerald R. Ford (Republican) for the nomination, and although incumbent Ford won the primary, he lost to Democrat Carter in the presidential election, and Carter handed it over to Panama through a Senate vote.
Regarding the Christmas message, the New York Times said, “Trump’s claim is false. The Panama Canal is operated by an agency of the Panamanian government, not the Chinese military,” and “Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino refuted Trump’s statement at a press conference.”
The Panamanian president announced at a press conference that “there are no Chinese people in the Panama Canal other than those on transit ships or at the visitor center,” and “China is not involved or involved in anything related to the Panama Canal.”
A recent report by analytics firm Strategy Risk found no direct links between CK Hutchison and the Chinese Communist Party, but said CK Hutchison’s involvement in managing the Panama Canal port raised security concerns because of its parent company’s ties to China.
“As a Hong Kong company, CK Hutchison is subject to Chinese jurisdiction, including laws that allow companies to be required to cooperate with intelligence gathering or military operations, and has collaborated on business projects with a variety of Chinese government-affiliated entities,” the report said.
“Through its network of subsidiaries, CK Hutchison co-owns a real estate joint venture with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, one of China’s largest defense companies,” according to data platform Wirescreen. “CK Hutchison is one of the world’s largest port companies, operating 53 ports in 24 countries, including the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Australia,” the report said. The New York Times said, “Even if the U.S. regains control of the canal (the treaty that actually handed it over has already been ratified by the U.S. Senate, so it’s unlikely that it will be undone), it would not change the fact that Chinese-owned companies control the ports at both ends.” Judah Levine, research director at Freightos, a logistics firm, said Panama charges container ships between $100,000 and $300,000 per cargo, a fraction of what the Suez Canal was charging even before the recent disruption to shipping in the Red Sea.
President-elect Trump has called the Panama Canal transit fees “outrageous.”
In 2017, Panama severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan and recognized China as the Chinese government.
In 2018, Panama became the first Latin American country to sign up to China’s global infrastructure program, the Belt and Road Initiative. The New York Times reported that “the Panama Canal, a longtime symbol of American imperialism, remains central to the American economy,” and that “President Trump has repeated other false claims about the canal and threatened to retake it if the United States is not treated more ‘fairly.’”
President-elect Trump said that “38,000 Americans died building it,” but historians have recorded that hundreds of American residents died, many from Central America, the Caribbean, or Colombia.
On May 9, 1989, U.S. President George H. W. Bush demanded that Noriega accept the results of the election and resign from his military command after U.S. election observers reported that the Noriega regime had rigged the election. The next day, the Panama Electoral Commission declared that the election had been sabotaged by foreigners brought in by the opposition and declared the presidential election invalid due to “foreign interference and widespread election fraud.” The opposition candidate took refuge in the Vatican embassy.
On October 3 of that year, the military coup led by Noriega's junior officers ended in failure, and on the 8th, US Secretary of State Baker and Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney responded to the '10.3 coup' by ordering the US military commander stationed in Panama to 'arrest Noriega without using force', and on the 10th, the US administration announced a "wartime declaration to respond to US aggression" to Panama.
On the 13th, President Bush announced, "I will not oppose the use of military force if it is to oust Noriega."