The member states of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) express their strongest rejection of the statements made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, in which he threatens to take control of the Panama Canal.

The Panama Canal is an important commercial passageway protected by International Law, the Torrijos-Carter Treaty and the Treaty Relating to the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal, which, as an immovable law, establishes that the waterway is an inalienable part of Panamanian territory, and therefore this claim represents an aggression against the sovereignty of that country.

The Bolivarian Alliance categorically rejects this new threat to the Latin American and Caribbean region and supports the Republic of Panama in the defense of its sovereignty, territorial integrity and self-determination.

Two hundred years after Simón Bolívar called for the Amphictyonic Congress of Panama, the countries of the Bolivarian Alliance reaffirm the validity of the union as the only way to confront the voracity of empires and ratify all their solidarity with the Panamanian government against this new attack.

Caracas, December 24, 2024