Paraíso/Panamá Palms and clean lawns border the alleys.
Detached houses offer a view of the hot node of the world’s maritime traffic, the Panama Canal.
The name of the place is Paraíso, or Paradise in Finnish.
It is a small town along the Panama Canal, which was US -managed until 1979, like the entire channel zone.
Many of the current residents of Paraíso remembered the United States warmly until the president Donald Trump struck his eyes on the channel.
– Certainly not because this is my own home. My father bought the house above all the ownership of the channel. House and plot, everyone is mine, says Dessy Smith.
Smith’s family lives in a single -story stone house just a hundred meters from the edge of the canal. In between, there is a net fence with a barbed wire for the safety of duct traffic.
In the video, Smith tells you why he has been inhabited so far as in paradise.
Panama people are waiting with excitement of the next US transfer.
Trump’s Foreign Minister Marco Rubio It is known to arrive in the country in the next few days.
Panama has tried to rest on his great ally by offering, among other things, closer cooperation migration In order to curb, but none of the experts or ordinary people interviewed by EPN want to give channel to the United States.
– Trump is crazy. Why do you want to give her publicity, one of Smith’s neighbors wonders. He does not want to comment on Trump’s speeches to the camera or tell his name.
Professor: The US would only get a channel with military force
Panama protest at Christmas Against Trump’s demands. One of the organizers of the demonstration was Saúl Méndez.
“We Panaman patriots defend our area and sovereignty, which belongs to every people in the world,” says Méndez in an interview with .
In his inaugural speech, Trump claimed that moving the canal to Panama was a “silly gift that should never have been made”.
According to Trump, Panama vaccinates American ships with oversized channel fees and does not treat much anyway. And according to him, the Chinese are currently operating the channel.
Wrong, wrong and wrong again, Panaman experts say like one mouth.
– Panama just borrowed its area to build a fairway between the oceans, says José CastilloProfessor of International Relations at the University of Panama.
The United States withdrew from channel management in 1999.
That’s why Panama has nothing to negotiate with the United States, Castillo says.
– The only way Trump could transfer the channel to the United States would be the use of military force.
The map below shows where the United States once had military bases in the canal area.
The US Navy has a channel right
In addition to power, Trump’s United States is rubbed by money.
The channel fees have been raised, but they are the same for everyone. The use of the channel can cost a large container ship over $ 1 million, says , Panama Canal Management Director.
He points out that, by agreement, US Navy vessels are always granted particularly rapid access through the channel.
No other country receives a similar VIP treatment.
– Under the leadership of Panama, the channel has worked without problems for 25 years and more efficiently. You have to find out what Trump thinks is the problem and what she is concerned about, the Operational Director of the Canal Administration Boris Moreno tells you.
At least Trump is concerned about China’s influence.
Moreno points out that only two of the five ports around the channel are managed by Chinese companies and are not directly dealing with the Panama Canal.
requested an interview and a shooting permit from a Hong Kong harbor company operating Balboa’s container port, but did not receive an answer.
The Panaman Embassy in China, in turn, only referred to China’s previous to the statementsaccording to which China has no role in the channel.
In addition, Trump has paved its channel requirements by the fact that the construction of the channel between 1904 and 1914 paid a huge amount of lives to the United States.
Journalist Mika Mäkeläinen tells Panama at the Channel Builders’ Cemetery how Trump’s claims are not:
The Panama Canal is an extremely important part of the identity and economy of the whole small state.
Panama has fewer residents than in Finland, but the channel fees spent $ 2.5 billion in net income each year, almost the same amount in euros.
The amount covers almost a tenth of the country’s budget.
The channel is constantly in full use, so the use of the channel is also profitable for shipping companies. This year, more than 12,000 large ships pass through the channel.
followed the shipping boat driver Adsel Tordecilla In the middle of the Panama Canal.
Tordec wonders why the United States supports countries like Ukraine, but could suddenly attack its little ally.
“It completely changes my thoughts and views in the United States,” says Tordec.
Thus, Trump has already acquired a major PR loss for the United States in Panama. However, that does not yet mean China’s profit.
According to Dessy Smith, who lives on the channel shore, the Chinese have been in Panama “as long as I remember”.
“All Panama stores are Chinese today,” Smith says.
The channel administration Panama intends to keep even tighter in his own hands.
As a refund for the US Panama has decided explore The legality of the Hong Kong port company. There has been no comment on previous audits.
Starting video of the story: Dessy Smith in front of her home / Oliver Jones, ; Demonstration against Trump in Panama City and Freathy in Channel / Reuters