Ex-Ambassador Warns Retaking Panama Canal Would Mean War

Amethyst Martinez
·2-min read
John D. Feeley
Getty Images

There may be only one way for the president-elect to take the Panama Canal: war.

Former U.S. ambassador to Panama John Feeley, who served under former President Barack Obama and incoming President Donald Trump, said that it would require a foreign war to retake the canal.

“To attempt to take it back today, I’d like to ask you, go find the MAGA constituency that’s going to support another foreign war because that is what it would take to get the canal back,” Feeley said Sunday in an interview on CNN.

Trump floated the idea earlier this month of taking back the zone if Panama didn’t stop charging the U.S. “exorbitant” fees for the country’s ships crossing the waterway. He then went on to refer to it as the “United States Canal” after Panama’s president shot down Trump’s comments.

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“I want to clearly state that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjoining zone is Panama’s and will remain so,” Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said. “The sovereignty and independence of our country are not negotiable.”

Trump also attacked former President Jimmy Carter’s decision to return the canal to Panama, saying: “When President Jimmy Carter foolishly gave it away—gave it away for $1, $1—during his term in office, it was solely for Panama to manage and not for China or any other country to manage, you see what’s going on there. China!” The canal is managed by the Panama Canal Authority.

“Let’s not forget, Jimmy Carter wasn’t the only one who thought it was a good idea,” Feeley said in the interview after Carter died on Sunday. “No one less than Henry Kissinger in 1975 told then-President Nixon: ‘If we don’t return this canal, we’re going to lose in every international forum, and we’re going to have riots all over Latin America.‘”

On New Year’s Eve this year, Panama will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the historic transfer of the canal to the country.

The Danish cargo ship Lars Maersk sails through the Agua Clara Locks of the Panama Canal in Colon City, Panama, on December 28, 2024. On 31 December 2024, Panama will celebrate the 25th anniversary of sovereignty over the Canal. (Photo by ARNULFO FRANCO / AFP) (Photo by ARNULFO FRANCO/AFP via Getty Images) / ARNULFO FRANCO / AFP via Getty Images
The Danish cargo ship Lars Maersk sails through the Agua Clara Locks of the Panama Canal in Colon City, Panama, on December 28, 2024. On 31 December 2024, Panama will celebrate the 25th anniversary of sovereignty over the Canal. (Photo by ARNULFO FRANCO / AFP) (Photo by ARNULFO FRANCO/AFP via Getty Images) / ARNULFO FRANCO / AFP via Getty Images

“We Panamanians may think differently in many aspects, but when it comes to our Canal and our sovereignty, we all united under a single flag, that of Panama,” the country’s president wrote.

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