Panama President Jose Raul Mulino rallied support from former presidents in defense of the country’s canal following threats from Donald Trump to reimpose US control over the waterway.

The canal, which was completed in 1914, was constructed by the United States and handed over to Panama on December 31, 1999, according to treaties signed approximately twenty years earlier

As for the Panama Canal, Mulino denied U.S. vessels are being overcharged to use the waterway and emphasized that China plays no role in the canal. A Hong Kong-based firm manages two ports at the Panama Canal’s entrances, but Panama owns and operates the entire canal.

Mulino also ruled out lowering canal tolls for US ships and refuted claims that China held any sway over the crucial waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

The New York Times: “With a choir singing ‘Ode to Joy’ as the prelude, nearly a century of American power and presence along the shores of the Panama Canal symbolically ended Tuesday when former President Jimmy Carter exchanged diplomatic notes with President Mireya Moscoso and said simply,

President-elect Donald Trump’s recent lament that the United States ceded control of the Panama Canal to Panama under the Carter administration is both strategically sound and historically resonant. Trump,

The Panama Canal, often heralded as one of the wonders of the modern world, is far more than a feat of engineering -- it is a cornerstone of U.S. national security and economic prosperity. This vital maritime shortcut has connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for over a century,