Panama marks Martyrs' Day as Trump threatens to retake control of Panama Canal

PANAMA CITY (AP) — A Panamanian national holiday remembering the killing of 21 protesters by police and U.S. troops in 1964 is taking on new resonance this year as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatens to take back control of the Panama Canal.

On Jan. 9, 1964, students protested in the then-U.S. controlled canal zone over not being allowed to fly Panama’s flag at a secondary school there. The protests expanded to general opposition to the U.S. presence in Panama and U.S. troops got involved.

Historians say what has come to be known as Martyrs’ Day was a key point of inflection that led to the signing of an agreement more than a decade later by U.S. President Jimmy Carter to turn over control of the canal to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999.

This year the holiday coincided with Carter’s funeral in Washington. The former president died Dec. 29 at the age of 100.

But Trump is bringing an expansionist attitude to his second term and on Tuesday, refused to rule out the use of military force to seize control of the Panama Canal. Trump has complained in recent weeks about rising charges for ships to transit the canal and suggested the U.S. should take it back.

It’s a proposal roundly rejected by Panama President José Raúl Mulino.

On Thursday, Esmeralda Orobio, the niece of one of those killed in 1964, said during a ceremony that “The Panama Canal is ours and we are going to defend it.”

Michael Shifter, former president of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washinton and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, called Trump’s rhetoric an “empty threat.”

“The idea that Trump would resort to force to retake the canal is not realistic,” he said.