Panama tells Trump canal 'is and will remain' Panamanian

Panama on Monday rejected President Donald Trump's pledge that the United States would be "taking back" the Panama Canal, saying the key interoceanic waterway would remain under its control.

"I must comprehensively reject the words of President Donald Trump," President Jose Raul Mulino said in a statement published on social media.

"The canal is and will remain Panama's," he added, dismissing Trump's claim that China is operating the canal.

"There is no presence of any nation in the world that interferes," Mulino said.

Dozens of people demonstrated in front of the US ambassador's residence in Panama City, burning US flags and holding a banner reading: "The Panama Canal is not for sale."

"What is in Panama belongs to the Panamanians. The canal is Panamanian, sovereignty is Panamanian, self-determination is Panamanian -- they have nothing here," said Saul Mendez, a union leader at the protest

The canal was built by the United States and opened in 1914.

It was handed to Panama on December 31, 1999, under treaties signed some two decades earlier by then-US president Jimmy Carter and Panamanian nationalist leader Omar Torrijos.

© Agence France-Presse