
Mr. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, visits Panama
Panama City, Feb 2 (EFE).- By Eduard Ribas i Admetlla
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino on Sunday sought to reconcile positions with the United States during a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, following threats by Donald Trump to take control of the Panama Canal in retaliation for alleged Chinese influence on the waterway.

During the meeting at the presidential palace in Las Garzas, which Mulino described as “respectful and cordial,” the Panamanian president offered Rubio closer cooperation in deporting migrants and said he would not renew the New Silk Road economic cooperation agreement with China.
Mulino sought to deflect pressure from Trump, who in just a few days in office has followed through on his threats against other countries, starting a trade war against Mexico, Canada, and China.
No “real” military threat
In a solo press conference at the end of the meeting, Mulino reiterated that “Panama’s sovereignty is not in question” and said he saw no “real threat” of a US military intervention.
“There is no doubt that the canal is operated by our country and will continue to be so,” he said.

According to Mulino, the US was particularly concerned about the fact that the ports of Balboa and Cristobal, on either side of the canal, are operated by a Chinese company.
Mulino informed Rubio that a major audit of the management of the ports was underway and asked him to wait for the results.
The head of US diplomacy demanded in a statement for “immediate” changes, arguing that China’s role “violates” treaties between the two countries.
The Canal, a source of national pride
The Panama Canal, which Rubio also plans to visit, connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and carries 3% of the world’s trade.
Inaugurated by the United States in 1914, control of the canal was transferred to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999, under the Torrijos-Carter Treaties signed in 1977.

Rubio’s trip to Panama, his first as secretary of state, sparked some protests in the Panamanian capital, whose main thoroughfares were lined with national flags.
The possibility of US interventionism is very much present in the country’s collective imagination, given that the United States invaded Panama in 1989 to arrest dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega.
Migration cooperation tour
Panama is the first stop on Rubio’s immigration-focused tour of Central America and the Caribbean, which will also take him to El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic.
Immigration control, a priority issue for the Trump administration, was prominent in Rubio’s meeting with the president of Panama, a key partner in stemming the flow of people crossing the dangerous Darién jungle, the natural border with Colombia.

Mulino’s government has tackled the problem with tough migration policies, including an agreement to return migrants – mostly from Colombia, Ecuador, and India – to their countries of origin on US-funded planes.
However, most migrants come from Venezuela, with which Panama has no relations, making deportations to that country impossible.
Rubio’s objectives for this trip include signing a safe-third-country agreement with El Salvador to receive Venezuelans. EFE

er/ics