Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino has accused his US counterpart Donald Trump of “lying” about Washington taking back the Panama canal.

“Once again, President Trump is lying. The Panama Canal is not in the process of recovery,” Mulino wrote on X.

“I reject, on behalf of Panama and all Panamanians, this new affront to the truth and to our dignity as a nation,” Mulino wrote on Wednesday, after Trump said that his administration had started to take back the vital waterway.

“To further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama canal, and we’ve already started doing it,” Trump said in his speech to Congress on Tuesday. “We’re taking it back.”

Trump’s comments came hours after – under mounting pressure from Washington –the Hong Kong firm Hutchison said it had agreed to sell its lucrative Panama canal ports to a US-led consortium.

Hutchison subsidiary PPC has for decades run ports at Balboa and Cristóbal on the Pacific and Atlantic ends of the interoceanic waterway.

But since taking office in January, Trump has complained that China controls the canal – a vital strategic asset that the United States once ran.

He has refused to rule out a military invasion of Panama to regain control, sparking angry protests and a complaint to the United Nations by the Central American country.

Source: Agencies