China detained nearly 70 Panamanian-flagged ships in March in what the United States and several Latin American countries are calling economic retaliation after Panama's Supreme Court annulled port contracts held by Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison. The court ruling, issued in late January, deemed unconstitutional decades-old agreements allowing CK Hutchison's subsidiary to manage the Balboa and Cristóbal terminals on the Panama Canal (the roughly 80km waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans). The US, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago issued a joint statement condemning the detentions as a bid to "politicise maritime trade" and undermine Panamanian sovereignty, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warning that threats to Panama's sovereignty are "a threat to us all."