Teddy Roosevelt once declared the Panama Canal “one of the feats to which the people of this republic will look back with the highest pride.” More than a century later, Donald Trump is threatening to take back the waterway for the same republic.

The social and racial divide along the Panama Canal zone in its American heyday was stark: a silver and gold, segregated system of pay – and life.

Latin American leaders on Monday rallied to Panama's defense after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to reimpose U.S. control over the Panama Canal, a key global shipping route located in the Central American nation.