On Monday Donald Trump held a rally in Arizona. There, the president-elect has once again done the promise to “make America great again,” this time simultaneously threatening the sovereignty of Mexico, Canada, Panama and Greenland.
Trump, who will take office on January 20, has returned to the fray with some ideas that he already spoke about in his last term and that They would put Washington’s relationship with its allies on the ropes.
Control, again, the Panama Canal
The Panama Canal was built by the United States in 1914 and administered jointly with Panama until its transfer to the Panamanian state on December 31, 1999, as established by the Torrijos-Carter treaties signed on September 7, 1977.
Donald Trump has announced, both on social networks and in Arizona that will seek to regain control of the Channel. The reason is that due to droughts, rates have increased. However, there may be another more important reason behind it: the greater presence of China both in the canal and in Panama.
The response of the Panamanian president, José Raúl Mulino, has been forceful. He has stated that the sovereignty of the canal is “non-negotiable” and that “every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent area belongs to Panama, and will continue to be so.”
Donald Trump has appointed Kevin Marino Cabrera as ambassador to Panama.
Annex Canada
Donald Trump has been joking for weeks about the idea of make Canada the 51st state of the United States while mocking Canadian Prime Minister Justin Turdeau, whom he calls “governor.” It is, possibly, the president-elect’s most daring idea, although he already declared in the campaign the idea of revoking the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement that his own administration negotiated in 2018.
Canada has been a fully independent State from the United Kingdom since 1984 and It is the eighth largest economy in the worlddespite having only 40 million inhabitants.
A soft intervention in Mexico
In the speech in Arizona, the American president-elect expressed that as soon as he returns to the White House he will “immediately” appoint the drug trafficking cartels as “terrorist organizations.”
In this way, the United States would have the excuse to intervene militarily in Mexican territory and destroy fentanyl laboratories.
In 2020, Trump’s former defense secretary, Mark Esper, published in his memoirs that the American president had already proposed launch missiles into Mexico.
For her part, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaun said at the beginning of the month that she “will never be subordinated” and that she “does not accept interference.”
Buy Greenland
Another addition to Donald Trump’s list of expansionist proposals is the purchase of Greenland. The announcement came when it appointed its ambassador to Denmark. He published it in a message on Truth, Trump’s social network: “The United States believes that “Ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”
Greenland is an island that has belonged to Denmark since the 13th century and has barely 60,000 inhabitants. It has wide autonomy with respect to Denmark and can even declare itself independent since 2009.
Although most of its surface is covered in ice, Climate change could expose its natural resources.
Already in 2019, Donald Trump proposed buying the islandalthough no one took it seriously and Denmark announced that it was not for sale. The same answer that the Prime Minister of Greenland, Múte Egede, gave five years later in a message on Facebook: “We are not for sale and we never will be.”
