Donald Trump’s government canceled the US visa of former Panama Martín Torrijos president, who criticized an agreement that allows the deployment of US military in the Central American country, the former president itself reported Monday.
The agreement, signed in April between Panama and Washington, allows the United States to use Panamanian air and naval bases for training for a period of three years.
Torrijos states that Washington canceled his visa for having criticized the agreement, as well as joint statements signed in April by the United States Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, with Panamanian officials.
That they revoke the visa, I assume it with pride, said Torrijos (2004-2009), son of General Omar Torrijos, who signed in 1977 with the then American president Jimmy Carter the treaties for the delivery of the Panama Canal to Panamanian hands in 1999.
The US military presence is a sensitive issue in Panama, as it evokes the time when the North American country had an enclave with military bases before delivering the channel to the Panamanians.
Also the former presidential candidate Ricardo Lombana, one of the rivals of the current president José Raúl Mulino in the 2024 elections, was deprived of his US visa, as the politician announced Monday.
It is a warning to all Panamanians who criticism of the Panama Government in regards to relations with the United States will not be tolerated, Torrijos said, announcing this measure in front of a great photo of his father and Carter the day signed by the agreements of the delivery of the interoceanic route, inaugurated by the United States in 1914.
We are living a historical setback, the ex -president of 61 considered.
Several Panamanian politicians and activists signed with Torrijos and Lombana the declaration that ensures that the agreement violates national sovereignty and the Panamanian Constitution.
The agreement was signed amid Trump’s pressures, who threatens to recover the Panama Canal under the argument that it is managed by China.
The channel treaties establish that all ships will pay equal amounts based on their capacity and the load they transport. In addition, they prohibit the installation of foreign military bases in Panama.
In April, Washington also canceled the visa of former Costa Rican president and the Nobel Peace Prize Óscar Arias, who had criticized the deportations of migrants and Trump’s global commercial war.