# Panamanians protest Trump threat over canal control
Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. embassy in Panama City on 2024-12-24 to protest Donald Trump’s threat to demand control of the Panama Canal be returned to Washington. The rally turned into a blunt public rejection of the idea, with protesters burning an image of the U.S. president-elect and chanting slogans against what they described as a renewed imperial claim.
France 24 reported that the demonstration drew people with banners reading “Donald Trump, public enemy of Panama” and that about 20 police officers guarded the embassy compound. The most important verified point is not the theatrics but the political message: Panamanians were responding directly to Trump’s comments on canal fees, U.S. shipping costs and Chinese influence.
The canal is a defining symbol of Panamanian sovereignty. It opened in 1914 under U.S. control and was handed to Panama on December 31, 1999, under treaties signed two decades earlier by Jimmy Carter and Omar Torrijos. That history shaped the protest language, with organizers arguing that the canal and the land around it are not open to renewed U.S. claims.
Trump had said on Saturday that if Panama could not ensure the “secure, efficient and reliable operation” of the waterway, the United States would demand the canal be returned “in full, and without question.” Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino responded by calling the canal status non-negotiable, and that position gave the protest a political backdrop even before people reached the embassy.
The rally was not just symbolic. Protesters voiced a broader rejection of outside pressure on a key national asset and used the event to reaffirm the canal as Panamanian territory. One organizer quoted by France 24 said Trump’s “imperial delusion” could not claim even a centimeter of land in Panama. Another protester said Panamanians were capable of recovering their territory and would not surrender it again.
What stands out in the reporting is the speed of the public backlash. Within days of Trump’s remarks, the issue had moved from a presidential statement to a street protest involving labor leaders, ordinary citizens and police protection around a foreign mission. That shows how quickly canal politics can become a national sovereignty issue in Panama.
The report did not include a detailed U.S. government response or any indication that the canal’s legal status was in doubt. Instead, it showed a domestic reaction to a foreign leader’s remarks and the enduring sensitivity of a waterway whose history is tied to U.S. engineering, Panamanian control and treaties that ended an era of foreign administration.
Source note
France 24, Panamanians protest 'public enemy' Trump's canal threat, https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20241224-panamanians-protest-public-enemy-trump-s-canal-threat; cited claim basis: 2392.
