Panama's Canal Ports: What Actually Happened

Panama's Canal Ports: What Actually Happened

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino had publicly insisted that "Every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent area belong to Panama and will continue to be." Yet a series of significant shifts followed.

On Day One of his second term, Trump declared the United States was "taking back" the Panama Canal. Within a fortnight, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in Panama City pressing Mulino on China's "control" of the canal — which the Trump administration's own intelligence officials privately conceded did not actually exist. The Hong Kong-based Hutchison Holdings ran two terminals at either end of the waterway. It did not, and does not, control transit.

The pressure worked anyway. Panama withdrew from China's Belt and Road Initiative. Hutchison agreed in March 2025 to sell its Panamanian port concessions to a U.S.-led consortium fronted by BlackRock, in a deal valued at around $23 billion. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth subsequently visited, standing on a Panamanian navy pier renovated with $5 million in U.S. Army money, declaring: "Together, we are going to take back the canal from China's influence."

Gobble's Take: Hutchison ran two terminals — it did not control the canal. That distinction matters when weighing what actually changed hands and why.

Sources: CoarsemanNews · CoarsemanNews

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