U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrived in Panama last night and was scheduled to meet today with President Luis Mulino, Defense Secretary Frank Abrego, and other government and military officials. His trip takes place against a backdrop of heightened tensions around the Trump administration’s allegations of China’s “threat” to the Panama Canal and continued rhetoric about the U.S. “taking back” the Canal, which was handed over to Panama in 1999, as per the 1977 Torrijos-Carter treaty.
During Hegseth’s stay, the U.S. and Panama will jointly participate in the April 8-10 Panamax-25 military drills focused on the security and interoperability of the Canal. They will also jointly host the Central American Security Conference on the same dates in which defense ministers and other military officials from 11 Central American and Caribbean countries will participate. Regional security coordination will be a key topic of discussion, in which the U.S. Southern Command will play a prominent role.
Undoubtedly timed to coincide with these events, yesterday Panama’s Comptroller General Anel Flores gave a press conference announcing the very negative results of an extensive audit of the Panama Ports Company (PPC), the subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd in Panama, accusing it of gross financial misconduct and criminal activity in its management of the 25-year-old concession of the ports of Balboa and Cristobal located at either end of the Canal. Donald Trump backed the proposal of U.S. investment firm BlackRock to buy the two ports, along with tens of others globally, to remove the Chinese “threat” from the Canal. Although China challenged the deal, Panama’s findings against Hutchison favor BlackRock. (See separate item.)
