Far-left President of Colombia Gustavo Petro warned President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday that he will side with neighboring Panama “until the last consequences” should the United States take control of the Panama Canal.
Petro, a former member of the Marxist M19 guerilla terrorist organization and the first leftist president in Colombia’s history, is known for issuing wild, often outrageous rants through his personal Twitter account.
The Colombian president took to social media on Sunday afternoon to criticize Trump amid the ongoing debate regarding the Panama Canal after the U.S. President-elect expressed that the United States should take back control of the important U.S.-built trade route because of the “exorbitant” transit fees imposed to the United States, which Trump described as a “rip-off”:
“I will stand by Panama and the defense of its sovereignty to the last consequences,” Petro’s message reads. “If the new US government wants to talk business, we will talk business, face to face, and for the benefit of our peoples, but dignity will never be negotiated.”
Panama and its neighbor Colombia are home to the Darién Gap, a dangerous jungle trail shared by both nations and the only land bridge connecting Central and South America. Since 2021, hundreds of thousands of U.S.-bound migrants passed through the Darién Gap en route to the United States Southern border. The amount of migrants passing through the Darién Gap reportedly dropped by a significant amount in November following the results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Petro continued his rant against Trump by claiming that the President-elect “has made a mistake and contradicted himself” if he does not want “myriads” passing through the Darién Gap that are then “increased by millions from Panama to Mexico.” Petro claimed that Trump “must understand that it will depend on the prosperity and freedom of our peoples.”
“If it seems costly to pay to pass the Panama Canal in the hands of Panamanians, it will be much more costly to plunge Panama, South America, Central America or Mexico into poverty,” Petro said.
“If they do not want us in the United States, we must make all the Americas prosperous in independence, freedom and democratic dignity,” he concluded.
The Panama Canal was completed by the United States in 1914 and remained under U.S. control until 1999, as per the terms of a deal agreement signed by both nations under the administration of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in 1977.
“When President Jimmy Carter foolishly gave it away, for One Dollar, during his term in Office, it was solely for Panama to manage, not China, or anyone else,” Trump wrote on Truth Social over the weekend. “It was likewise not given for Panama to charge the United States, its Navy, and corporations, doing business within our Country, exorbitant prices and rates of passage.”
“Our Navy and Commerce have been treated in a very unfair and injudicious way. The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the U.S. This complete ‘rip-off’ of our Country will immediately stop,” he continued.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, who took office in July, responded to Trump’s remarks through a video issued on social media shortly afterwards, in which he asserted that “every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent area belongs to Panama and will continue to belong to Panama,” stressing that the country’s sovereignty over the trade route is “irreversible”:
Mulino further claimed that the Canal’s tariffs are “not a whim” and are established in “a public manner and in an open hearing, considering market conditions, international competition, operating costs and the maintenance and modernization needs of the interoceanic waterway.”
In December, Mulino publicly asked President-elect Trump to maintain an U.S.-funded deportation flight agreement Panama signed with the outgoing administration of U.S. President Joe Biden and which went into effect in July.
