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This essay analyzes the statements made by US President Donald John Trump regarding the Panama Canal and their historical, political, and geopolitical implications. Starting with his inaugural address in January 2025, in which he described the Canal's transfer as a "foolish gift" and announced his intention to "take it back," the text examines how this rhetoric reopens a conflict that Panama considers closed since 1999, when it fully regained its sovereignty over the interoceanic waterway. The study positions the Canal not only as a key infrastructure for global trade but also as a symbol of national identity and resistance against a past of extraterritorial domination. It explains that the return of the Canal was the result of decades of social and diplomatic struggle, formalized in the Torrijos-Carter Treaties and protected by the Neutrality Treaty. The analysis of Trump's discourse identifies strategies such as imperial nostalgia, the construction of external enemies, and populist simplification, which distort the current legal framework and the operational reality of the Canal. Finally, the essay assesses the economic and diplomatic consequences of this discursive conflict and concludes that the Panama Canal has become a symbolic arena where political unilateralism and respect for the international order based on law and the sovereignty of states clash.
Este obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional.
