Panama marks canal handover anniversary in shadow of Trump threat

Panama on Tuesday marked the 25th anniversary of the United States’ handover of its interoceanic canal, a milestone overshadowed by US president-elect Donald Trump’s threat to demand control be returned to Washington.

The anniversary came two days after the death of former US president Jimmy Carter, who in 1977 signed the treaties that led to the vital waterway’s eventual transfer decades later.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said at the anniversary ceremony, held at the Panama Canal Authority’s headquarters, that “a sadness … fills us with the death of Jimmy Carter”.

A minute of silence was held in memory of Carter, whose endorsement of the treaty set up transfer of the canal – completed by the United States in 1914 – to Panama on December 31, 1999.

Former Panamanian president Mireya Moscoso, who oversaw the symbolic turn-of-the-century handover, said that “today we feel the same emotion” as on that occasion 25 years ago.

Neither Mulino nor the various other speakers at Tuesday’s ceremony mentioned Trump and his recent threats in their speeches.