Frequent droughts have pushed authorities to pursue a controversial plan to dam a river to save the waterway — an act that would flood the homes of thousands of people.
Since returning to office, President Trump has made repeated claims that China operates the Panama Canal and threatened to take it back from the Panama Canal Authority, which has controlled it since 1999.
More than 2,000 people could be displaced by the construction of the Río Indio dam. The Panama Canal Authority says the dam solves a long-term water shortage problem.
Panama’s president has said that he instructed the country’s foreign minister to not discuss the U.S. government’s allegations of Chinese interference in the operations of the Panama Canal with the visiting head of U.