Panama City (AP) – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio Meeting the president of Panama on Sunday during the opening of his first foreign trip as the first American diplomat while President Donald Trump increases the pressure on the neighbors and allies of Washington, including a request for the Panama Canal has returned to the United States.
One day after Trump announced that he imposed major prices in Canada and Mexico, causing reprisals from these countries, Rubio was perhaps planned for a less conflictual and more diplomatic approach. After interviews with President José Raúl Mulino, Rubio planned to visit an energy installation and then the channel, the object of Trump’s intense interest.
Mulino said there would be no negotiation with the United States on the property of the canal, and some Panamanians organized demonstrations against Trump’s plans. Mulino said he hoped that Rubio’s visit would focus on common interests such as migration and the fight against drug trafficking.
Rubio will support Trump’s best goal – Curl illegal immigration – But also said that he would bring the message that the United States wanted to recover control of the Panama Canal despite intense resistance Regional leaders to combat the growing influence of China in the hemisphere.
Friday, in an opinion article of the Wall Street Journal, Rubio said that mass migration, drugs and hostile policies exercised by Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela have wreaked havoc, and that port facilities end of the canal are managed by a company based in China, leaving, leaving the vulnerable navigable way to pressure from the Beijing government.
“We are going to approach this subject,” said Rubio one day earlier. “The president was clear enough that he wants to administer the channel again. Obviously, the Panamanians are not big fans of this idea. This message was very clear. »»
The channel built by the Americans was given to the Panamanians in 1999 and they strongly opposed Trump’s request to put it back.
Despite the rejection by Mulino of any negotiations on property, some believe that Panama could be open to a compromise in which the operations of the channel on both sides are removed from the company Hutchison Ports, based in Hong Kong, which received an extension Without 25 years old bid to run them. An audit on the ability of this extension is already underway and could lead to a process of re -enact.
What is not clear is if Trump would accept the transfer of the concession to an American or European company to respond to its requests, which seem to cover more than operations.
The trip of Rubio, who will also take him to Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, comes in the middle of a freeze in foreign assistance in the United States. The State Department said on Sunday that Rubio had approved derogations from certain critical programs in the countries it visits, but that the details were not immediately available.
