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At the beginning of the 20th century, an expanding United States wanted a way to expedite naval passage between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. And in 1904, Panama granted the United States the right to build and operate a canal and control five miles of land on either side of the water. But ownership of the region had been a thorny issue for decades as Panamanians were locked out of the prosperity the canal created right in their own front yard, and in 1977 President Carter signed a treaty with Panamanian Chief of Government Omar Torrijos to return the canal area to Panama.

Since then, Panama has invested nearly $6 billion to improve the infrastructure and increase the shipping capacity to expand the canal’s use worldwide.

The Panama Canal was not an issue in the 2024 election, but in December, President Trump began claiming that the United States, the shipping lane’s biggest user, was “being severely overcharged and not treated fairly” and threatened to “take [the canal] back or something very powerful is going to happen.”

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