By Elida Moreno
PANAMA CITY (Reuters) – Hundreds of Panamanians marched on Thursday to mark the anniversary of a deadly uprising against U.S. control of the Panama Canal in 1964, with some protesters burning an effigy of President-elect Donald Trump who has threatened to retake the landmark land. the way of water.
More than 20 Panamanians, many of them students, died during violent clashes across the country in January 1964, which escalated after US security forces opened fire in response to numerous demonstrations against the US presence in the country and control of the canal. At least three US soldiers also died.
This event, which is commemorated every January 9 as “Day of the Martyrs,” is considered to have paved the way for the transfer of the Panama Canal in 1999. in Panama, during the height of the conflict with Trump.
“Today is a day to remember the sacrifice of our martyrs, but we also tell the world that Panama is sovereign and the canal is ours,” said Sebastian Quiroz, an 84-year-old retiree who was a student during the conflict. .
The marching crowd chanted “blood spilled will not be forgotten” and “hands of Panama” as they approached the eternal fire memorial, built to remember those who died in 1964. Earlier in the day President Jose Raul Mulino laid a wreath at the site of the formal ceremony.
Trump on Tuesday refused to rule out the use of military force or economic pressure to seize control of the canal, an 82-km (51-mile) artificial waterway that connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and is the main international shipping route.
The president-elect criticized the cost of shipping goods through the canal and mocked China's influence in the area. China does not own or control the canal, but a Hong Kong-based subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings has long controlled two ports located in the Caribbean and Pacific canal.
Panama has strongly retaliated against Trump's threats.
“The only hands that control the canal are Panamanian and it will continue to be so,” Foreign Minister Javier Martinez-Acha told reporters on Tuesday.
Ivan Quintero, a 59-year-old university employee who attended the march, said no government can take away what the people of Panama have fought for for so long.
“Mr. Trump has been very disrespectful by threatening to take the channel away from us,” he said. “He needs to learn to show respect.”