Panama and China have hit back at American claims about Beijing’s influence over the Panama Canal, saying they were “lies”.
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US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants the US to regain control of the canal and this week US Southern Command head Alvin Holsey visited the Central American nation to step up the pressure.
The visit drew the ire of Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino, who told a press conference on Thursday that he had told his cabinet members not to discuss Washington’s allegations.
He said he did not want to “discuss lies” or “increase the morbidity created around the Chinese issue in Panama and the Communist Party’s control of the canal”.
“Those are the questions [Holsey] should be answering and where [the United States] is getting such information,” said Mulino.
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The US commander did not meet the president but he is expected to meet Panama’s Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha Vásquez and Security Minister Frank Ábrego to discuss “the safety and security of the canal area”, according to the Pentagon.