Panama deal allows US to deploy troops to canal

by María Isabel Sánchez

US troops will be able to deploy to a string of bases along the Panama Canal under a joint deal seen by AFP Thursday, a major concession to President Donald Trump as he seeks to reestablish influence over the vital waterway.

The agreement, signed by top security officials from both countries, allows US military personnel to deploy to Panama-controlled facilities for training, exercises and "other activities."

The deal stops short of allowing the United States to build its own permanent bases on the isthmus, a move that would be deeply unpopular with Panamanians and legally fraught.

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But it gives the United States broad sway to deploy an unspecified number of personnel to bases, some of which Washington built when it occupied the canal zone decades ago.

Trump, since returning to power in January, has repeatedly claimed that China has too much influence over the canal, which handles about 40 percent of US container traffic and five percent of world trade.

His administration has vowed to "take back" control of the strategic waterway that the United States funded, built and controlled until 1999.

The United States has long participated in military exercises in Panama.

However, a longer-term rotational force -- such as the one the United States maintains in Darwin, Australia -- could prove politically toxic for Panama's center-right leader Jose Raul Mulino.

- 'Country on fire' -

Mulino was on Thursday in Peru, where he revealed that the United States had asked to have its own bases.

Mulino said he had told visiting Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth that US bases, allowed under an earlier draft, would be "unacceptable."

He warned Hegseth: "Do you want to create a mess, what we've put in place here would set the country on fire."

In the watered-down "Memorandum of Understanding", signed by Hegseth and Panama's security chief Frank Abrego Wednesday, Panama won its own concessions.

The United States recognized Panama's sovereignty -- not a given following Trump's refusal to rule out an invasion -- and Panama will retain control over any installations.

Panama will also have to agree to any deployments.

But given Trump's willingness to rip up or rewrite trade deals, treaties and agreements, that might offer little succor to worried Panamanians.

The country has a long and difficult relationship with the United States.

They have close cultural and economic ties, despite the decades-long US occupation of the canal zone and US invasion 35 years ago to overthrow dictator Manuel Noriega.

That invasion killed more than 500 Panamanians and razed parts of the capital.

Trump vow to take back the canal, and his claim of Chinese influence have prompted mass demonstrations.

By law, Panama operates the canal giving access to all nations.

But the US president has zeroed in on the role of a Hong Kong company that has operated ports at either end of the canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for decades.

Under pressure from the White House, Panama has accused the Panama Ports Company of failing to meet its contractual obligations and pushed for the firm to pull out of the country.

The ports' parent company CK Hutchison announced last month a deal to offload 43 ports in 23 countries -- including its two on the Panama Canal -- to a consortium led by US asset manager BlackRock for $19 billion in cash.

A furious Beijing has since announced an antitrust review of the deal.