The channel is ours, written by Reuters

Written by Elida Moreno

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) – Hundreds of Panamanians marched on Thursday to commemorate the bloody uprising against U.S. control of the Panama Canal in 1964, and some demonstrators burned an effigy of President-elect Donald Trump, who has threatened to retake control of the vital Panama Canal. Waterway.

More than 20 Panamanians, many of them students, died during violent clashes across the country in January 1964, which escalated after American security forces opened fire in response to mass demonstrations against the American presence in the country and control of the canal. At least three American soldiers were also killed.

The incident, which is remembered on January 9 every year as “Martyrs’ Day,” paved the way for the eventual transfer of the canal to Panama in 1999. It also serves as a reminder of the bloody past that still dominates patriotic sentiment around the canal. In Panama, at a time of escalating tensions with Trump.

“Today is a day to remember the sacrifices of our martyrs, but also to tell the world that Panama is sovereign and the canal is ours,” said Sebastian Quiroz, an 84-year-old retired trade unionist who was a student during the uprising. .

The crowd chanted “The blood shed will never be forgotten” and “Hands off Panama” as they approached the Eternal Flame Monument, built in memory of those who died in 1964. Earlier in the day, President Jose Raul Molino laid a wreath at Monument. The site is at an official ceremony.

On Tuesday, Trump refused to rule out the use of military or economic pressure to control the canal, an 82-kilometre-long artificial waterway linking the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and an essential international shipping route.

The president-elect criticized the cost of transporting goods through the canal and mocked Chinese influence in the region. China does not control or operate the canal, but a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings has long operated two ports located on the canal’s approaches to the Caribbean and Pacific regions.

Panama strongly criticized Trump’s threats.

“The only hands controlling the canal are Panamanian hands, and that is how it will continue,” Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martinez Acha told reporters on Tuesday.

Ivan Quintero, a 59-year-old university employee who participated in the march, said no government can deprive Panamanians of what he has fought for for so long.

He added: “Mr. Trump was very disrespectful when he threatened to take the channel away from us.” “He has to learn to show respect.”