Mulino rejects Trump’s government statement on the Panama Canal: it is based on “an intolerable falsehood”

Spanish CNN
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The president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, rejected on Thursday the information released Wednesday by the United States government indicating that his country would have accepted not to charge for the traffic of US ships in the interoceanic channel.

It is a “falsehood (…) intolerable,” Mulino said at his weekly press conference, this Thursday.

“I am very surprised by the state department statement (of the USA) yesterday, because they are making important communications (…) depending on a falsehood, and that is intolerable, simple and simply intolerable,” said Mulino, cited, cited By Efe, who also said that his position does not give him the power to control the tolls of the channel.

Mulino added that the toll costs to the US vessels are not high. “Nor that the toll of the channel is breaking the economy of the United States. No, sir. They walk for US $ six or seven million per year depending on the number of ships that cross, ”said Panamanian President.

CNN is trying to contact the US government to know its position on the figures and statements provided by the Mulino President.

The Panameno president also said that prior to the press conference he spoke with the Panama Ambassador in the United States, José Miguel Alemán, so that both he and other ambassadors in other countries “demand this situation” that he qualified again in the wheel of Press as “at all pleasant.”

On Wednesday Panama had already denied the statement of the State Department according to which the Central American Nation had agreed to stop charging rates to US government ships for traveling through the famous channel.

“In response to a publication released by the United States Department of State, the Panama Canal Authority, empowered to set tolls and other rights to travel the channel, communicates that it has not made any adjustment to them,” said the Authority in a statement, in which he added that he was willing to establish a dialogue with the USA.

The Panama declaration directly contradicted the statement of the State Department early in the afternoon of Wednesday.

“US government ships can now travel through the Panama Canal without charging fees, saving the US government millions of dollars a year,” said the State Department in a statement published in X next to An image of a naval vessel entering the chlusses of the channel.

USA has demanded from Panama an alleged Chinese control of the channel, something that both Panama and China have denied.