“The United States threatens to return to the era of the Diplomacy of Cañonero of the nineteenth century in Panama,” the newspaper from Washington told Monday Peter KornbluhAnalyst of the National Security Archive (NSA acronym in English), a private entity based in Washington DC while reviewing the documents that have just been made public added: “Now the president Trump He has an emperor in a hurry. But to be emperor you need to have an empire. And I’m afraid that the US is no longer, “he explained without biting his tongue.
The continuation of the American control of the Panama Canal “seems pure colonialism,” said the then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to the president Gerald Ford During a National Security Council meeting in May 1975, 50 years ago, according to one of the declassified documents (see the reproduced folios).
It was May 15, 1975. “Internationally, not concluding a treaty will lead us to a famous cause, with harassment, demonstrations, embassy bombardment”he warned Kissingeraccording to a conversation memorandum made public.
The declassified documents on the Panama Canal. / ep
The main negotiator for a new treaty on the channel area, the ambassador Ellsworth Bunkerreinforced that point: “I have no doubt that a failure in these negotiations would entail unacceptable risks,” he said Bunker To the president, “including negative effects beyond Panama that would disturb our relations with Latin America, cause world condemnation and hinder the functioning of the aquatic route”
According to Kissinger“This is not an issue to face the world.”
Trump & Rubio
On February 2, 2025, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, He traveled to Panama to meet with the president of the country, José Raúl Mulinoand launch without waste of time the wishes of the aspiring emperor. Trump It considers that the presence of a Chinese company in the Canal area viola the neutrality clause of the 1977 Treaty.
“Rubio made it clear that this ‘status quo’ is unacceptable and that, in the absence of immediate changes, he will lead the US to adopt the necessary measures to protect his rights under the treaty,” said a spokesman for the State Department in what was a threatening summary of the meeting.
During his investiture speech, Trump He said: “We did not give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we are going to recover it,” an ominous statement that led Panama to present a complaint to the United Nations for considering that the US is violating the UN letter It prohibits “the threat or use of force” against the territorial integrity of member countries. But during the secretary’s visit Rubio To Panama, Trump He reiterated that threat: “We are going to recover it, or something very powerful will happen.”
“The Historical Archive of the negotiations of the Canal Zone reflects the pragmatic promise of real diplomacy to promote US interests. Declassified documents include reports from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), informative documents of the National Security Council, White House meetings, telephone transcripts and audio tapes that date back to the president’s age John Kennedy”, Point to this newspaper Cereal.
Although the channel agreements were signed by the Democratic President Jimmy Carter and the Panamanian leader, the general Omar Torrijosin September 1977, the negotiations for a new treaty that returned the sovereignty of the area of the channel to Panama extended for 13 years -from 1964 to 1977 -, during the governments of Lybndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford y Jimmy Carter.
Almost half a century after complex and prolonged bilateral diplomatic efforts finally eliminated the area of the channel as a contentious and internationally repudiated symbol of US hegemony in the Latin American region, these fascinating file records provide a contextual and factual vision to understand and appreciate the foundations Historic of the foreign policy crisis that is aggravated today around Panama.
Monroe and the backyard
The American Senate has opened a bipartisan investigation into whether Panama has violated the agreements reached when the US gave him the control of the channel. The Democratic Party, despite the fact that the Democratic President Carter He signed the 1977 Treaty, is seconding the initiative.
Trump Monroe doctrine resurrections with this plan, undertaken by the president James Monroe More than 200 years ago, in 1823, in which he warned against any colonizing intervention of the European powers in the American continent. That doctrine was later transformed, in the twentieth century, in what was called the “rear patio” of the US in view of armed invasions and military blows [precisamente, Kissinger impulsó el derrocamiento del Gobierno democrático de Salvador Allende por el general Augusto Pinochet el 11 de septiembre de 1973]
Schmitt and the third Reich
Carl Schmittthe jurist who adhered to National Socialism claimed the Monroe doctrine in the early 30s of the 20th century because he said, it was “expression of the law inalienable to self -defense”, recognized in article 21 of the Pact of the Nations Society. precedent to justify both the ‘Großraum’ (great space) German or ‘Lebensraum’ (Hitler’s vital space) in the expansion of central Europe or that of Japan in Asia.
It was the Monroe doctrine, precisely, one of the justifications given by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939: a legitimate exercise of power within its ‘Großraum’. That is, an order in which the mutual recognition of the spheres of influence should prevail, leaving behind the traditional Eurocentric order.
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