“COUNTRY ON FIRE”
Mulino was on Thursday in Peru, where he revealed that the US had asked to have its own bases.
Mulino said he had told visiting Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth that US bases, allowed under an earlier draft, would be “unacceptable”.
He warned Hegseth: “Do you want to create a mess, what we’ve put in place here would set the country on fire.”
In the watered-down “Memorandum of Understanding”, signed by Hegseth and Panama’s security chief Frank Abrego on Wednesday, Panama won its own concessions.
The US recognised Panama’s sovereignty – not a given following Trump’s refusal to rule out an invasion – and Panama will retain control over any installations.
Panama will also have to agree to any deployments.
But given Trump’s willingness to rip up or rewrite trade deals, treaties and agreements, that might offer little succor to worried Panamanians.
The country has a long and difficult relationship with the US.
They have close cultural and economic ties, despite the decades-long US occupation of the canal zone and US invasion 35 years ago to overthrow dictator Manuel Noriega.
That invasion killed more than 500 Panamanians and razed parts of the capital.
Trump vow to take back the canal, and his claim of Chinese influence have prompted mass demonstrations.
By law, Panama operates the canal giving access to all nations.
But the US president has zeroed in on the role of a Hong Kong company that has operated ports at either end of the canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for decades.
Under pressure from the White House, Panama has accused the Panama Ports Company of failing to meet its contractual obligations and pushed for the firm to pull out of the country.
The ports’ parent company CK Hutchison announced last month a deal to offload 43 ports in 23 countries – including its two on the Panama Canal – to a consortium led by US asset manager BlackRock for US$19 billion in cash.
A furious Beijing has since announced an antitrust review of the deal.
