Trump claims canal in U.S. strategic shift

President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to reassert U.S. control over the Panama Canal could presage a shift away from a rules-based neo-liberal international order into a more robustly assertive foreign policy


WHO OWNS CANAL?

1880: French-U.S. Panama Canal Company begins construction on Colombian territory

1903: U.S. backs Panamanian rebels seeking independence from Colombia, takes exclusive permanent possession of Panama Canal Zone

1914: Canal opens

1977: Torrijos-Carter Treaty cedes control of canal back to Panama

1999: Panama takes full control of canal


Port at either end of canal managed by Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings – raising fears of Chinese control

Port of Cristobal
Gatun Locks
Gatun Lake
Pan-American Highway
Colón
PANAMA
Pedro Miguel Locks 
Miraflores Locks

Panama Canal
Accounts for 2.5% of global seaborne trade – 14,000 ships each year

Panama City
Port of Balboa
PACIFIC OCEAN
20km 12.5 miles


TRUMP’S GLOBAL OUTLOOK

China: Seen as principal economic and strategic threat to U.S

Canada: Accused of unfair trade practices, Trump has floated making it a U.S. state – presumably in jest!

Greenland: 2019 offer to buy autonomous territory rejected by Denmark, now described as “absolute necessity” for U.S. security

SEATO / NATO
Members should pay for “U.S. protection”

Mexico
Military action threatened against drug cartels

Venezuela
Attempted coup against Nicolás Maduro in 2019

Iran: Approved airstrikes in 2019, called back mid-air 


Sources: Reuters, BBC, Vox, Common Dreams
© GRAPHIC NEWS