Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino opened his weekly press conference on Feb. 6 by denouncing the State Department for lying, when it asserted in a Feb. 5 post on X that “U.S. government vessels can now transit the Panama Canal without charge fees, saving the U.S. government millions of dollars a year.” Mulino reported that he had informed the U.S. Secretaries of State and Defense that the Panamanian constitution and laws explicitly prohibit waiving transit fees for any user of the Canal. While Panama may not be the first of nations, he stated, it is also not the last, and I, as President, cannot and will not violate the Constitution.
Maintaining and strengthening Panama’s historic bilateral relations with the U.S. are a priority; it is our number-one trading partner, but discussions between nations must be carried out in good faith, he said, with no little heat. How can there be statements issued by the State Department, the institution which “governs the foreign policy of the United States, under the President of the United States, based on a falsehood? That is intolerable. It is simply intolerable.” Every Panamanian Embassy worldwide has been ordered to convey to the world “my absolute refusal to continue exploring the path of [how to] manage our bilateral relationship on the basis of lies and falsehoods.”
And what is this fee fight worth to the U.S.? The U.S. pays less than $10 million a year in fees for its warships to cross the canal; actually some $6-$7 million, a sum which won’t bankrupt the United States, Mulino reported!
