Trump's Threat to Grab Panama Challenged by SUNTRACS Union Pres Saúl Méndez Rodríguez

Trump's Threat To Grab Panama Challenged: SUNTRACS Pres Saúl Méndez Rodríguez Challenges Trump

Fascist president Trump has threatened to invade Panama to take back the canal which he
says belongs to the United States. Panamanian workers have held protests protesting this
imperialist power grab. WorkWeek interviews SUNTRACS union president Saúl Méndez
Rodríguez about the history of the canal and the struggles of the Panamanian workers.
The US organized the steal of Colombian territory to form Panama and then completely
controlled the country for decades as a US colony.

This interview was done on 1/17/24

Additional Media:

Panama: Workers’ protests vs. mining concession continue amidst state repression
https://www.bwint.org/cms/panama-workers-protests-vs-mining-concession-continue-amidst-state-repression-3004

Additional Information
SUNTRACS
https://suntracspanama.com

WorkWeek
https://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio

Production Of Labor Video Project
http://www.labormedia.net

Text Of Interview With SunTracs President Saúl Méndez Rodríguez

Julián
Hello to all the comrades who are watching this broadcast. Today we are going to have a special guest from Panama, a union leader who is going to be commenting on what is happening right now in Panama, especially with these proclamations by Trump, in which he basically refers to the fact that the Panama Canal belongs to the United States. And, therefore, that they are going to try to do everything possible to regain control of it again, alluding to this thought that supposedly they paid for it, supposedly, they built it and that, although they ceded it to Panama, it still belongs to them and they are going to do everything possible to try to get it back. But on the other side we have all these workers, all the Panamanian people who for a century - more than a century - have been fighting against these constant interventions by the United States. The struggle for sovereignty, which has been led by social organizations led by unions, and today, right now in this broadcast, we have a comrade, a union leader, an activist who has been part of these movements, who is going to tell us about all these issues.

Before I give the floor to comrade Saul so he can introduce himself to us, I'll quickly introduce myself. I'm Julian, I'm a member of the Revolutionary Action Group in Mexico. And I'm also part of the UAW 4811 union in California, United States, which represents academic student workers. Now I'm also going to give the floor to Peter, who is doing this broadcast in collaboration with WorkWeek. So, I don't know if Peter can give us a brief introduction of who you are, who you represent?

Peter Ross
Yes, I'm here with WorkWeek Radio, an American show that covers the voices of workers and unions and struggles at the local, national and international levels. And you can find the link to our show here on the Facebook event page. And Julian and I are comrades from the same union, UAW 4811 in the United States. So, thank you for talking to us, Saul, about your union and the history of American imperialism in your country.

Julián
Perfect, then, without anything else to say, we will give the floor to Saul, if he can give us a brief introduction of who he is, which union he represents, and a little information about this union, perhaps which confederation he belongs to. Saul, I will give the floor to you, please.

Saúl Méndez Rodríguez
Of course. Good afternoon. First, I would like to thank you, Julian, and Peter for the opportunity. I am glad to know that we are comrades in struggle and work, in the role of trade unionism. Trade unionism is the development of the organizational possibilities of workers to address their demands, but also to address their social context. And, in that sense, I am grateful for the opportunity. I am Saúl Méndez Rodríguez. I am the General Secretary of the National Union of Workers in the Construction Industry and Similar, SUNTRACS, of Panama. We are affiliated with the National Confederation of Independent Trade Union Unity, CONUCI. We are part of the Construction and Wood International at the international level with an international union that brings together 13 million members. I am the global Deputy President of this structure, representing SUNTRACS and our region in the Global South. And SUNTRACS is one of the most important organizations, historically speaking, for workers in Panama, one of the largest organizations in quantitative and qualitative terms.

And, naturally, in addition to our labor demands, we have had to face more than 30 hard years of neoliberal economic policy, of the so-called Washington Consensus. We have been victims of neoliberal economic policies in the midst of this confrontation. We have been victims of the assassination of leaders, imprisonment, persecution, stigmatization by the class enemy, its political parties, its mass propaganda media. But we have faced all of that and we continue to contribute our grain of sand in the social struggle, in the workers' struggle and in the Panamanian popular struggle, in the face of the different issues that we have been facing. We have been part of that current of the Panamanian people that has demanded the defense of its sovereignty, its self-determination, its canal, the withdrawal of Yankee troops from Panama and the handing over of the reverted areas. And we are heirs to that great group of social fighters in Panama who have faced the US interventions throughout the 20th century.

Panama was born as a Republic under the interventions of the North Americans because of their interest in building the canal that had belonged to the French. In addition, this conspiracy hatched in Panama by the US government and its army preceded the Thousand Days War, which was related to a war that was taking place in Colombia. Panama was a part of this war. After it joined Simon Bolívar's project in 1821, it became independent from the Spanish Crown. And it was one of the last countries to break away from what was known as Gran Colombia at that time. And the gringos supported this act that took place in Panama, immediately through Bunau Varilla - he was appointed by the provisional governing board, he was given the status of full ambassador and the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty was agreed upon, which granted the construction of the Panama Canal, its adjacent areas, 10 miles next to the canal and the US military presence in perpetuity. This, naturally, was rejected by the population from the moment it was agreed upon, and this brought with it a series of incidents due to this oligarchic betrayal against the sovereign will of the Panamanian people. In 1904, the first constitution was legislated in Panama, and in it was included Article 136, the Platt Amendment, or the Platt Clause, that had been applied to Cuba in the gringo intervention in the war of liberation of Cuba, in 1898. And it was applied in 1901. And what does the Platt amendment say? What it indicated was the impunity of the US to intervene militarily in the internal affairs of Cuba. Well, that was transferred to the Panamanian Constitution with the same basic meaning.

The US army and its government not only counted the votes in Panama, they organized the elections, they even decided to repress the people if there were problems of a socially explosive character. And during those first three decades - I'm referring to 1903 until the 1930s - it was the American army that used force to repress the Panamanian people. In incidents that occurred, such as, for example, the tenants' struggle that took place in Panama against the increase in rents that the oligarchy wanted, the Panamanian presidents asked for the intervention of the Americans, especially in Panama City and Colón. All of this was happening in one episode after another. The Canal Zone was an enclave where there was American jurisdiction, American judges, American police, American laws, the American army, a governor. And all kinds of incidents occurred, from young boys going to harvest a mango tree, a mango, and they were put in prison, to the abuses that occurred based on the arbitrary actions of the Americans in a territory that did not belong to them. This had the consequence, for example, that in 1947, an attempt was made to impose a new treaty in Panama, at the time when the Second World War had already ended, and they were planning to leave 100 military outposts throughout the country – which was the outcome of the Filós-Hines Agreement – and the people were in the streets. Faced with this pretension of the traitorous oligarchy and the American Government, this was defeated in the National Assembly with ongoing mobilizations. The agreement had to be withdrawn.

In the 50s, there was an operation that was known as Operation Sovereignty. A group of students in 1958 and 1959 planted Panamanian flags on what were the slopes of Ancón Hill, which was a part of the national territory taken by the Americans. At that time, there was repression. The peak of the patriotic struggle of the Panamanian people became known to the world in the events of January 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the year 1964. There, the students of the National Institute went to place a flag at the Balboa high school, which was a Sonian school, because that area was known as the Sonian zone. And there, despite the fact that there was an agreement that where there was a gringo flag in the national territory, a Panamanian flag also had to fly, it was not fulfilled. There was an attack against the flag, against the students, and this brought about a confrontation between the humble, honest and hard-working Panamanian people with stones and sticks against the American army. There were 21 victims of this patriotic act. The people demanded that the Americans leave the country. And this, then, was a source of instability for the Americans and their army here.
In the year 1967, in an event that was held in Havana that was known as part of a wave of Latin American solidarity organizations, the leader Floyd Britton revealed a treaty that was being negotiated behind the backs of the Panamanian people between the oligarchy and the Americans. The treaty would allow the maintenance of military bases. There at the conference, this secret treaty was translated, it was denounced in that international act, and the people mobilized. The treaty could not be approved.

And in 1968 - a year later - there was a military coup d'état, like the coups that took place all over Latin America. The guerrillas, the military, who murdered and persecuted people - Panama was no exception - made people disappear. And in 1968, the military favored discussing a treaty with the Americans again. That is how we arrive at the 1977 Treaty. While it is true that the 1977 Treaty returned control of the canal and the reverted areas, and led to the withdrawal of American troops, it is equally true that the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty and the 1903 Treaty remained in effect, along with the Pratt Amendment and the so-called DeConcini Amendment, which was tied to the neutrality pact. And what this amendment says and repeats is that, in the opinion of the Americans, when they believe or feel like saying that the canal is at risk, they can invade the entire territory of Panama. We have denounced this to the present, and future generations must repeal it. This is against international law. No nation is subordinate to another nor can it be intervened against by another, according to international law.

However, the statements made by Trump, and now Marco Rubio, who was named Foreign Minister - they call him the American Secretary of State - that they have claims in Panama in relation to the canal, in relation to their presence, that they are going to recover it, this is not debatable. The message of the Panamanian popular movement has been very clear. Here, neither the Americans, nor Trump and his army, nor any American institution has anything in Panama, Panama is a sovereign country. It has a people that exercises its self-determination. These people that exercise their self-determination according to the rule of international law, exercise the sovereignty of a state, both in their territory and in the airspace and maritime waters. And so, Trump is showing, in our opinion, an imperial delirium in the face of a changing world. The world is changing geopolitically, and his response is to try to talk about the Panama Canal, Greenland, Canada, Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico, in a total aberration that I must point out is an aberration based on manifest destiny, which is the ideology with which the US imperialists took over and invaded lands in America. They took a piece from Mexico, etc., the Monroe Doctrine, etc. The last wars, the Bush Doctrine, the seizure of the oil wells in Iraq, in Libya. In short, then, they are trying by force to create a different reality. The reality that we are invoking is that the Canal is Panamanian. And neither Trump, nor Marco Rubio, nor the US Government, nor the State Department, nor its army, nor Congress - because we have also seen that a Democratic congressman has presented a bill to buy the Panama Canal - there is nothing for sale here! Panama belongs to the Panamanians. The canal belongs to the Panamanians. The sovereignty of the canal belongs to the Panamanian people and the Americans have nothing here! That is the reality. And, naturally, in the face of that, protests have been held from the first moment Trump made his statements, protests have been held. And we are ready for January 20, when the Trump government takes office. We are ready to see what will happen on the one hand and, on the other hand, we have organized a picket action at the house of the American ambassador in Panama, with the organizations of the popular movement for Trump's inauguration. That is how things are in Panama right now, and that is how they have developed in relation to this issue. Initially I had apologized for being late to your event, because I am in the National Assembly of Deputies right now, where a law against workers, on social security, is being debated, and that is why I could not enter your meeting. We are waiting to see what may happen in this room.

Julián
Thank you very much, Saul. Speaking about this reform that is being carried out, perhaps you can explain to us what this invasion by the United States in 1989 brought about. That apparently also imposed neoliberalism in Panama and all these issues that they are facing right now with the social security fund. I don't know if you can also explain a little about that.

Saúl Méndez Rodríguez
Well, the invasion of 1989 was a military aggression against the Panamanian state. There was an inter-bourgeois struggle between the military, which displaced the oligarchy in 1968, and the displaced oligarchy. This confrontation was provoked by both sides, over the control of state resources. Both sides had stolen from the state, they had made the state into a business. And this struggle finally ended with the US invasion, which they based precisely on the DeConcini clause. But there is no doubt that this was an illegal intervention. The United Nations issued a resolution in which it rejected the invasion, it rejected the invasion and demanded the withdrawal of North American troops from Panama. International law was not respected. National sovereignty was not respected and this invasion took place. And this was also rejected by the Panamanian population at that time. That was the last US aggression in which they acted militarily against the Panamanian people. Today, there are more than 4,000 people: Panamanians, men and women, missing – children, men and women, who have been missing. There have been attempts to find out their names, but that has not been possible. The oligarchy has not been interested in that issue either, and even less so the Americans, and it is part of the aggressions that we are talking about, and of course, from 1989 onwards there have been other geopolitical elements. What are those geopolitical elements that have occurred from 1989 onwards? Well, the Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union disintegrated, and what was the consequence of all this? The acceleration of the neoliberal economic model and globalization. So, from there, the pseudo-democratic, oligarchic, Panamanian governments that have been elected until today have implemented these policies of hunger and misery. One of their many failures is that of social security, which they now intend to deepen by privatizing accounts, giving the funds to the banks, to the pension fund management company, and that is what we are facing. They are talking about increasing retirement for workers, increasing the quota, increasing the density of the quotas, among others. And this is a failed model that they implemented in 30 countries between Latin America and Eastern Europe. And already, 21 countries of those 30 have returned to the solidarity models, but in Panama they still intend to make the situation worse. That is what he have here and it is part of the harvest that this people is still living with, from the neoliberal economic policies imposed by the US boot with the Yankee invasion of 1989. And with it, reforms to the labor code, the payment of taxes, workers pay more taxes than businessmen. In short: the plundering of natural resources, the theft of economic resources, of mineral resources. In fact, the Panamanian population is among the countries where there is the worst distribution of wealth, the greatest inequality, of the countries where every day the population cannot meet their needs. They do not have a decent salary, nor do they even have jobs. And in that sense, then, all these problems are part of the situation that we are experiencing.

Julián
Perfect. Saul. Well, speaking precisely about this plundering of Panama's resources, speaking about this situation that occurred a year ago, I think, in 2023 with these protests against this Canadian mining company, about how the Canadian mining companies plunder these resources and give them nothing. Can you talk a little about this movement that there was against the Canadian mining companies?

Saúl Méndez Rodríguez
Correct. The issue of the mine in Panama. Coincidentally, at that time, due to neoliberalism, the mineral resources were handed over to a Canadian transnational mining company, First Quantum, which I must add has capital from governments such as the Canadian, Korean, even the Chinese Government, and other governments of the planet. And in that plunder, handed over through an unconstitutional contract, in 1923, the people rose up against this contract and in the streets defeated the contract to sell out our country, because it also handed over part of our sovereignty to the mining company, the Canadian company. And the Supreme Court of Justice declared the mining contract unconstitutional and in violation of more than 25 articles of the Panamanian constitution. That was overthrown in the streets. There were more than 42 days of actions, of marches in the streets, protests, etc. And, naturally, this has generated a national discontent that the workers, the population have rejected. The oligarchy and the current government and the economic powers are trying to maintain that contract. They are trying to revive the mine. But the population has a quite firm position regarding the situation with the mine and, in that sense, we are also vigilant regarding this issue, which is linked to the issue of social security, because in order to justify reforms they want to say that the mine needs to be opened to generate employment, that the mine needs to be opened and so on. But we all know here in Panama that this is false, that what they want is to steal the mineral resources and continue the party. So, this is part of the problems we are experiencing in Panama.

Julián
Thank you. Panama is in a terrible situation. It basically has to be sold to other powers and the Panamanian elites justify it as a way to bring prosperity to Panamanians. But here in Panama, generally this extractivism only serves the elites. No ?​

Saúl Méndez Rodríguez
Definitely .​

Julián
Speaking a little more about SUNTRACS, about how SUNTRACS has participated in these movements: I don't know if you can tell us about the history of SUNTRACS. In particular, I think that in the United States there is also an interest in how to make unions militant, because there, unfortunately, structures have been created that are available to political parties, which is generally the Democratic Party, and these structures have been created that do not allow people, unionists, to create more militant, more democratic structures. So I don't know if you can tell us about this struggle that there was for democracy in the union and lately about well, this question of not only thinking about local issues, economic issues, but that they have managed to increase their awareness, let's say, and also think about politics, not with their participation in the brakes on that in the broad front, so I don't know if you can explain all that to us.

Saúl Méndez Rodríguez
Well, in the case of Panama, injustice leads us to organize. In the case of SUNTRACS, the workers were organized in 1972. They have negotiated a collective agreement with the construction companies since 1974. That is to say, it is 52 years old and the negotiated collective agreement, 50. SUNTRACS conceptualizes itself as a class conscious current of workers that defends the interests of the working class and, in particular, on the other side, the construction of new organizations, because it also feels that there is a need for real, participatory democracy that really responds to the interests of the majority. And on that basis, then, we have participated in the struggles. We have evolved. We have organized with part of the popular movement. This popular movement has been organized through the broad front for democracy, excuse me, through the National Front, defense of economic and social rights. And because economic and social rights are the rights of the Panamanian population that are under attack. And then, in that space we have also discussed the need to raise our capacity to fight and raise it to the political electoral terrain, and in the political electoral terrain we have organized a party that has already proposed presidential candidates on several occasions. It is called the Broad Front for Democracy. The first presidential candidate was comrade Jenaro López, 10 years ago. Then, I was a candidate for the presidency of the Republic as well. And now, recently, we have presented an independent candidacy of the economist Maribel Gordon. That is to say, we are fighting the battle in the social movement. But we also understand that in the structure of the formal power of the State there must be representation of the social movements, of the patriotic, revolutionary movements, of the popular movement. And that is why we have raised the capacity to fight to take it to the political electoral terrain. So, we are members of social organizations that have fought and continue to fight for this country, to improve the quality of life of Panamanians, but also to begin to confront the problems: corruption, party politics, the theft of resources, the alliance that exists between economic power and traditional political parties, how they steal things which belong to the Panamanian people. So, we are also fighting in that field the battle to make the country decent, so that public policies benefit the majority and so that we have a real democracy, in which the people in power have the capacity not only to elect leaders, but to revoke mandates, and also to order whoever they elect to do the things they want and don’t want at any given time. National life implies having to look for real possibilities in which people see themselves represented in the laws or in public policies. So, in that sense, we have evolved and in that development of our struggle, we have reached the stages that I have mentioned.

Julián
Clearly, as workers, we cannot remain at the level of the unions alone. If we really want to improve our conditions, if we really want to have democratic countries that meet the needs of the population, only with the conquest of power by the workers will that be achieved. Right? One question also, now that SUNTRACS represents the construction workers, it seems to me that it has also represented its workers who have been in the construction and expansion of the Panama Canal, right?

Saúl Méndez Rodríguez
Yes, of course. We represent more than 98% of the workers in the country's construction industry. We have a collective agreement that covers that number of workers and in the works that have been developed in Panama, in infrastructure projects, the most important thing is a state there representing the workers. There are more than 120,000 workers affiliated to our organization. Membership is voluntary, as it should be in the matter of the union movement. And in the midst of all this, we have also established political positions, that is, our representation is based on labor demands, but also on political and social demands. That is what we have managed to do from the left.

Julián
Thank you, that also means that the Panama Canal is not maintained like this only by the Americans, but that, obviously, there have been many Panamanian workers who have been working on the canal to ensure its construction and maintenance, and that it is totally false that the United States has been the one who paid for it and is the one who built it. It is totally false, I think.

Saúl Méndez Rodríguez
The construction of the Panama Canal, in its first stage, which was directed by the Americans, was built with Panamanian labor and Latin American, European, Chinese labor, etc. And it was not the Americans. Trump's claim that 30,000 Americans died in Panama is a lie. That is false. Yes, people died, because of the conditions, which were terrible for construction, and naturally that raised the issue of the death of people. In this other stage in which the Panama Canal has been expanded, the labor force has been more than 98 percent Panamanian labor. And, naturally, that had nothing to do with the North Americans at that time.

Julián
Perfect. Well, now we're going to give the floor to Peter as he also has some questions prepared. So, Peter, I’ll give you the floor.

Peter Ross
Yes. Thank you, Julian. Well, it is precisely the decline and crisis of American imperialism that has caused the rise of Trump and the possibility of a new explosion of military aggression. And China has made economic advances in Latin America and the imperialists want to maintain control of their so-called backyard. So, the danger is increasing not only of attacks against Panama, but also against the rest of Latin America, especially against Venezuela and Cuba, and the whole world. So, could you comment on this and on the danger to Latin America and also what the response of the working class would and should be?

Saúl Méndez Rodríguez
Well, the geopolitical chessboard is moving as we all know: China, Russia, the BRICS have created a multipolar world. The US empire thought that its dominance for 3 decades or 3 and a half decades of neoliberal imposition would be maintained. And in the face of that, the scene is indeed changing. In Latin America, there have been progressive elections for more than 22 years, people are organizing themselves, winning elections and public policies directed towards the majority of the population, etc. We face related problems: the Venezuelan issue, which has been harassed by the North American Empire; the blockade of Cuba for more than 65 years; and now, the case Trump mentions about the Panama Canal. All this is generating a series of problems that indicate that, in effect, the decadent empire intends to maintain itself by whatever means necessary, by force and threats. But it is no longer just Latin America, it is Greenland, whose jurisdiction is Denmark. It is Canada, who Trump says they are going to turn into another US star. It is the Gulf of Mexico, which if the drug cartels are declared terrorists, they can invade with their army. In short, it is imperial madness that we are hearing from Trump and US international policies in the face of their weakness, in the face of having used the dollar as a blackmail currency and to blockade other countries, in the face of their permanent threats. Naturally, imperial delirium in the face of a decadent empire, these are the aftershocks. And Latin America - its reaction must be fundamentally one of unity of the peoples, and demand from its government solidarity with the peoples who are and may be attacked or threatened, as in the case of Panama.

Peter Ross
Well, SUNTRACS is associated with the BWI Federation of Trade Unions, which includes unions in the United States. And also the ILWU, a longshore union, has locals in Panama and the United States. And in San Francisco, the ILWU has called on the rest of the union to stop arms shipments to Israel. And Trump has made threats not only against other countries, but also against the working class in this country, the unions, the left, and of course, against immigrants. So, what kind of actions would you like to see American workers and unions take in solidarity with Panama and how can we make stronger links between our unions?

Saúl Méndez Rodríguez
Well, international solidarity of workers is a historic task. What would we expect of other workers? We would expect, in effect, that through their organizations, we could have platforms in the media, that resolutions of solidarity could be made, that mass actions could be carried out in the US government structures, and in the global structures. I believe that a campaign in solidarity with the Panamanian people with the Panamanian workers from the North American unions would be fabulous, especially with progressive positions of rejection of these type of aberrations by their Government, by the US Government, that would be fabulous. And in terms of strengthening our relations, well, it is simply by working together. Meeting and being able to work together is an aspect of strengthening our relations, our solidarity which, furthermore, I must say, is reciprocal, no?, because we have also been aware of a series of injustices that the North American workers themselves have suffered. And, in addition, migrant workers, who are also subject to persecution in the United States, from Trump's policy and so on, as well as Biden 's policies, etc., separating migrant families, all these things that we have been seeing in practice, how they have been executed. So that would be our humble opinion on that question.

Julián
No problem. In fact, we're just finishing up. Peter, I don't know if you have another question? Well, I guess not. But let's wrap this up. Thank you very much, Saul. I think this gives many of us this perspective of Panama, which is perhaps not as well known outside, especially about the nature of the intervention. In fact, Panama was also the site of the School of the Americas.

Saúl Méndez Rodríguez
That's right, where they trained all the murderers of Latin America in Panama. And from here, they served as a platform for aggression against the peoples of Latin America who fought and continue to fight. The School of America trained Pinochet, Stroessner, all those murderers... Noriega in Panama, Torrijos, … They worked for the CIA, for the empire. So, the School of America was here. Fortunately, that was closed here. Now it is in the United States through its counterinsurgency policy. But yes, it did operate here in Panama, that school of terror.

Julián
Yes. Fortunately, as Saul says, the Panamanian people have been able to fight against that and expel them from their country, to recover this sovereignty. But well, now the task for all of us who are outside of Panama, especially for the workers in the United States, is how to prevent this sovereignty from continuing to be infringed by the United States and the American empire. We are going to have to think about solidarity action, but this fight must be led by American workers. We cannot wait for these parties, the Democratic Party, which in the end both the Democrats and the Republicans have been in consensus on interventions in other countries outside the United States. So only an organization of workers in the United States, only a party of workers in the United States, is going to be the one that can really change the United States and that can, for once, break with this American imperialism, which favors the oligarchic elites of that same country and other countries in some way. And well, that's all. Thank you very much, Saul. We have our task here, and, well, I don't know if there is anything else to say, but…

Saúl Méndez Rodríguez
Thank you for the opportunity, Julian and Peter. Unfortunately, we have had to do this work under these conditions at the moment and I hope that we can coordinate a future interview so that we can continue to develop ties, especially in the heat of the things that are happening, to be able to continue to share with you and with those who are listening and to be able to deepen all the relationships required for this work. Thank you on behalf of the Panamanian workers, the Panamanian people, SUNTRACS and in particular myself.

Julián
Thank you very much , Saul. And as you say, we need to start to connect more internationally. Well, that would be all. I also thank Saul, and SUNTRACS.