Marco Rubio warns Panama that China’s affect on the channel is “unacceptable” | EUROtoday

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The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, warned this Sunday to Panama that the Donald Trump authorities considers “an unacceptable threat” China’s alleged affect on the channel. And it went additional: if the Central American nation doesn’t make “immediate changes” on this regard, “the United States will take the necessary measures to protect their rights,” mentioned the State Department in a press release. The message got here to the president, José Raúl Mulino, after a gathering on the headquarters of the Government in Panama City. In a press convention after the assembly, Mulino mentioned that “there is no real threat [por parte de Estados Unidos] of recovering the channel or the use of force. ”

Mulino reviewed the dialog held with Rubio with out mentioning the specter of Washington. “It was a meeting” very quiet and respectful, “he said. This Sunday was the first stop of Rubio’s official visit to Central America and the Caribbean. Mulino, with a friendly tone, took the opportunity to send a message to Trump: “We wish to work with the United States as we’ve all the time carried out.”

Custodied for his official security, Rubio got off a truck, walked under the soft summer sun and greeted the chancellor, Javiel Martínez-Facha, who was waiting for him on the portal of the Palace of Las Garzas, headquarters of the Panamanian Government. He was alone for more than an hour with the Mulino President, and then joined an extended meeting with the teams of both governments, for two more hours. “The channel shouldn’t be negotiated,” Mulino repeated after the meeting, what did he negotiate? The control of the migratory passage through the Darien, intelligence information on money laundering and organized crime, investments and, probably, ports on both sides of the canal.

To get the channel out of the fight, the Panamanian government invested more than two million dollars in Republican wolves – one of them so Trumpist that he even asked to invade Panama, as George Hw Bush did on December 20, 1989 – and aligned his cabinet With its strategy of not climbing the conflict. The president did not want to, “she needs,” fight with the United States. He had given clear signs that he preferred to deliver anything, except the only step between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

On Sunday, there was relief among Panamanian officials present at the meeting – among them, the Ministers of Security, Economics and Foreign Relations, in addition to advisors such as the former administrator of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), Alberto Alemán Zubieta. While they exchanged with Rubio and their delegation, other Panamanians protested a few blocks from the official office.

In a place in front of the National Assembly, social and workers organizations demonstrated against Rubio. Waving flags and guarded by the police, they shouted slogans against “the invading nation” and the “corrupt oligarchy” “that steals the individuals” from “their conventional political events.” “It is the city, a handful of them, who holds nationwide dignity,” said a speaker.

Marco Rubio
The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, during a meeting in Panama City.Mark Schiefelbein (via Reuters)

So far, Trump has not commented on the results of the negotiations with Panama. In addition to that country, in the last two weeks the president has generated conflicts with three of the five countries that most export to the United States: Mexico, Canada and China, whom on Saturday imposed rates of 25% and 10%. At least ten times he pointed out during the last weeks against Panama, denouncing China’s alleged influence on the channel, something that the Central American country denies.

Anyway, Panama will give up some control in the border territory with Colombia, in the province of Darién, where a landing floor will possibly be built to deepen the deportation policy of migrants started last July, when Mulino assumed. “We remained to discover the opportunity of increasing the memorandum we signed on July 1 to have the ability to articulate extra,” said the president. Also, according to a government source, they would be willing to open the bolt that protects the classified information on money laundering and organized crime.

Mulino left the door open to review the concession of the two ports on the edge of the channel to a company based in Hong Kong. “At the second, these concessions are audited by the Panama authorities and we’ve to attend for these audits to finish, to get our personal conclusions and act accordingly,” said Mulino. It was an announced assignment, taking into account that the government considered that it had no alternative. “They are those who deal with the buttons,” said a member of the official Panamanian delegation in reference to the United States.

After seeing the president, Rubio went to satisfy the staff of the Embassy, ​​situated within the constructing that the United States maintains within the outdated channel space. He additionally deliberate to go to the services of the North American Capital firm AES within the province of Colón, the place 40% of the channel operations are. In the afternoon, he deliberate to shut Miraflores locks, constructed by the United States in 1903. The Rubio tour will proceed to El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.

https://elpais.com/america/2025-02-02/marco-rubio-advierte-a-panama-que-la-influencia-de-china-en-el-canal-es-inaceptable.html