Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino and Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha for nearly an hour in Panama City Sunday morning, Feb. 2, on his first stop on a trip which is to include three other Central American countries and the Dominican Republic. He has made kicking China out of the Western Hemisphere a higher priority than even stopping migration and fighting drugs. In Panama, stopping China has been linked to President Trump’s stated intention to re-establish U.S. control over the Panama Canal.
The meeting was “cordial and respectful,” a dejected-looking President Mulino told a press conference afterwards. The State Department readout on the meeting belied any semblance of “respect.” It states:
“Secretary Rubio informed President Mulino and Minister Martínez-Acha that President Trump has made a preliminary determination that the current position of influence and control of the Chinese Communist Party over the Panama Canal area is a threat to the canal and represents a violation of the Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal. Secretary Rubio made clear that this status quo is unacceptable and that absent immediate changes, it would require the United States to take measures necessary to protect its rights under the Treaty.”
Mulino—backed by every living former President of Panama and the majority of the Panamanian people—has stated that Panama’s sovereignty over the Canal is not negotiable. Faced with the threat of the U.S. seizing it by force, Panama has begun making concessions it hopes will satisfy the Trump administration. First up, was a major blow for Panama’s development: a commitment to pull out of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The first item in the official Panamanian readout on the Rubio-Mulino meeting, after the facts of the meeting itself, is that “Panama pledged (se comprometió) to not renew the memorandum of understanding with the People’s Republic of China that was signed on November 17, 2017.”