US Secretary of Defense Pitt Hegschez will go to Panama next week, the Pentagon announced today, while the Donald Trump It denounces a supposed Chinese involvement in the canal.

Hegschez will participate in the Central America Security Conference and will “He meets with senior political and military leadership officials and security countries in a series of bilateral meetings”Pentagon’s spokesman said Parnell in a statement.

These meetings are expected to allow “our partnerships with Panama and other Central American countries to be reinforced, with the aim of implementing our common vision for a peaceful and safe western hemisphere”he added.

Before taking up his duties on January 20, Donald Trump had already increased the pressure on Panama, threatening to “regain” the US -built canal, inaugurated in 1914 and remained under US sovereignty until 1999.

Panama took back the canal that year, under an agreement concluded in 1977 with the then US President, Democratic Jimmy Carter.

The United States and China are the two countries that mainly use this channel that connects the Pacific with the Atlantic Ocean, and through which 5% of world marine trade passes. The CK Hutchison colossus, based in Hong Kong, recently reached an agreement on the sale of ports controlled by a US consortium.