When Donald Trump resumed his presidency last week, he reiterated his desire to take back the waterway that he says Jimmy Carter foolishly gave away in 1977 under a treaty that guaranteed its neutrality.
Polls in the late 1970s showed that roughly half of Americans opposed the transfer, and less than a third supported it, but by 1999, public opinion had shifted, with about half supporting it.
Now, Trump wants it back.
Bob Maginnis, a senior fellow for national security at the Family Research Council (FRC) who never favored giving up the canal, believes the president means business.
"It would take a significant military effort to not only go down there, but to occupy and to run the canal," he tells AFN. "For many years, we had air bases, naval bases, and army forts down there that ran that place."
Trump has reportedly suggested using military force to retake the canal, which spans more than 500 square miles. According to U.S. Army estimates, that would require about 90,000 troops. And as the canal handles around 6% of world commerce, that would also disrupt world trade and draw the U.S. into another land war, which Trump does not want.
Maginnis says a takeback would ultimately require assistance from Congress, legislation that says the U.S. can establish in that region a series of facilities to run the canal. But recognizing that would create "all sorts of international issues," he adds that it is up to Panama.
In 1996, Panama granted a Hong Kong company, then called Hutchison-Whampoa, a concession to operate the Balboa port on the Pacific side and Cristobal port on the Atlantic side. The port operator is today known as Panama Ports Company, part of Hutchison Ports, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings, owned by billionaire Li Ka-shing.
President Trump maintains that Panama has violated the treaty that governed the transfer by allowing China to effectively control the canal, but Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino has denied there is any foreign influence of the port and says his country operates it through a principle of neutrality.
"If Panama wants to maintain control over the so-called country, they're going to have to bend to what Mr. Trump is saying," the FRC senior fellow submits. "Otherwise, he's going to ratchet up the pressure and may even use the military to enforce what he believes is a strategic security issue for the United States."
