Could be a negotiating tactic
Could be an actual threat of military intervention
https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/u...ssage-af43055eU.S. Blindsides Panama, Saying American Government Ships Will Get Free Canal Passage
No formal deal has been agreed to as President Trump threatens takeover
BlackRock was Trump's COVID relief administrator and delivered the W for Trump here too
CK Hutchison’s decision to sell up its port holdings company in a deal valued at nearly $23 billion, including $5 billion in debt, gives the BlackRock consortium control over dozens of ports in more than 20 countries. They include the Panamanian ports of Balboa and Cristobal, four ports in Mexico, 13 in Europe, 12 in the Middle East and Africa, and 11 in East Asia and the Pacific. Unsurprisingly, Hutchison will retain control of its 10 docks in China, including two in Hong Kong.https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025...st-policy.htmlThere can be no denying it: the deal represents a geopolitical victory for the Trump administration as well as a setback for China’s belt-and-road ambitions, with some 6% of global trade passing through the Panama Canal. While this move will not fully wipe out China’s economic influence in Panama, it does represent a diplomatic recalibration and a shift towards closer alignment with Washington. It is also a major victory for Wall Street, as Benjamin Norton noted in his Geopolitical Economy Report:
BlackRock is the world’s biggest investment company. It managed a record high of $11.6 trillion in assets in the fourth quarter of 2024. (The top 500 investment managers on Earth together held $128 trillion in assets at the end of 2023.)
The Associated Press reported that the BlackRock-led consortiumnow controls at least 43 ports in 23 countries. The Wall Street giant’s subsidiary Global Infrastructure Partners was central to the US government-sponsored Partnership on Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI), which was launched by the Joe Biden administration and the G7.
BlackRock’s billionaire CEO Larry Fink was invited to sit with Western heads of state at the G7 summit in Italy in 2024, where he called for “public-private partnerships” to help Wall Street firms buy up global infrastructure, especially in poor, formerly colonized countries.
BlackRock has enjoyed a very close relationship with the US government, under both Democrats and Republicans. Fink said before the US presidential election in November 2024 that it “really doesn’t matter” who wins, because both parties would benefit Wall Street.
Bloomberg reported that Fink personally called Trump and asked him to help BlackRock purchase the Panama Canal ports. The financial media outlet noted that the billionaire CEO bragged of BlackRock’s deep links with governments worldwide, stating, “We are increasingly the first call”.
Ok, radio silence on the BlackRock tie of long-standing
"we'll invade if you don't do what we say"
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...fic-rcna195994U.S. Southern Command is developing potential plans that vary from partnering more closely with the Panamanian military to the less likely option of U.S. troops seizing the Panama Canal by force, the officials said. Whether military force is used, the officials added, depends on how much the Panamanian military agrees to partner with the U.S.
Sometimes Trump means what he says & sometimes he don't.
We're gonna see this one play out live.
Mean it!
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