Panama president calls Trump’s talk of ‘reclaiming’ the Panama Canal a lie

"PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama President José Raúl Mulino on Wednesday
accused U.S. President Donald Trump of lying when he said in his address
to Congress that his administration was “reclaiming” the Panama Canal.
Trump was referencing a deal announced Tuesday for a consortium led by
the U.S. investment management company BlackRock Inc. to buy a
controlling stake in the company held by a Chinese group that operates
ports at both ends of the Panama Canal.
Panama maintains that it has full control over the canal and that the
Hong Kong-based group’s operation of the ports did not amount to Chinese
control over the waterway, and that therefore the sale to a U.S.-based
company would not represent any U.S. “reclaiming” of the canal. Panama’s
government on Tuesday called the sale a private transaction.
Mulino in a message posted to X on Wednesday, rejected that the deal
came about because of U.S. pressure. “I reject in the name of Panama and
all Panamanians this new affront to the truth and our dignity as a
nation,” he wrote. He accused Trump of “lying again.”"