WarSclerotic

Panama and Donald Trump, La Estrella Panama, Marco A. Gandásegui, Hijo, November 17, 2016

(Translation by Google. Distorting history for fun and profit. And Panama, where my wife and I have lived for more than a decade, is one of the more Gringo-friendly nations in Latin America. This sort of tripe rather frustrates me.– DM)

Panama and the US Have had a difficult relationship for more than a century and a half. The isthmus of Panama became increasingly a key element in the expansion plans of the American capitalists. The construction of the Trans-Isthmus (1850-1855) and the Panama Canal (1904-1914) was strategic in consolidating the new empire that stretched over a continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Subsequently, Panama became a huge military base for the US wars. Against Japan (1941-1945) and then against Korea and Vietnam (1951-1975). The bases in the former Canal Zone also served to intervene and invade all Latin American countries, becoming the ‘backyard’ of the United States.

During more than 175 years Panama has dealt with dozens of governments and their executives. Cousins Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt, Bush (father and son), Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan are some of the most remembered, for good and for very bad. The US President Have led invasions, coups d’état, conspiring in assassinations and have mocked the Panamanians.

President-elect Donald Trump appears on the horizon as a novel and unpredictable political phenomenon.For the financial world, the entrepreneur is a question and his rhetoric against the so-called ‘free trade’ has shaken trading markets in all continents. President Juan Carlos Varela, in answering a question about Trump’s election, failed to fathom a coherent answer. The Panamanian government still has no policy to deal with the new White House tenant.

Washington has had a very clear policy for Panama since the military invasion of 1989. How does this position of the United States fit together? About Panama with Trump’s ideas? It is a question whose answer we will know, as they begin to square (if they fit) the objectives of the foreign policy of the new administration.

US foreign policy Has three objectives in Panama since the 1989 military invasion: First, to ensure that transit through the Channel is not interrupted. Second, to serve as a link in its militarist policy on a regional scale. At the same time, be useful in your policy of ‘war on drugs’. Finally, to develop the neoliberal guidelines of the ‘Washington Consensus’, explicit in the Free Trade Agreement signed by both countries.Politically, USA. Delegated to a small Panamanian elite the responsibility to govern the country. The elite have done it quite badly, speculating on the extraordinary revenues generated by the operation of the Panama Canal, creating a growing deficit and destabilizing the political regime with the increasing corruption resulting from militarization. In 20 years it ruined agriculture and industry, destroyed health and education systems, and the system of political representation has fallen into the hands of an insatiable mafia.

President-elect Donald Trump has no personal interests in Panama. (Only the name in one of the hotel towers that adorns the sky-line of the capital). Five years ago Trump did say about the Panama Canal and the way in which the negotiations (1977) culminated that allowed its delivery to the Panamanian government.

On a business visit to Panama City in 2011, Trump declared that ‘Panama is doing very well with the Canal, there are so many workers, there is so much employment. Thinking that stupidly US Gave him the Canal for nothing ‘. Trump was only repeating President Reagan’s insistence after the signing of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties (1977) until his death. A minister of the Panamanian government in 2011 predicted (with great skill) that what Trump intended with his statements was to launch his candidacy for the presidency of his country. Incidentally, the City Council of the city declared persona non grata.

Following its campaign logic, Trump could ask Panama to contribute part of its revenue, for Canal tolls, to the ‘war on drugs’ (increase the purchase of arms to the US, build more air bases And to train more repressive forces in the facilities of the School of the Americas (Fort Bragg). It could also require Panama to eliminate the few tariffs remaining to flood the market with its agricultural products ( Agro Panamanian).

* PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PANAMA AND INVESTIGATOR ASSOCIATE OF CELA.

This entry was posted on November 17, 2016 at 11:55 PM and is filed under American imperialism, President Elect Trump. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: American imperialism, President Elect Trump