In a trip to Panama April 7-10, characterized by bullying, threats and China-bashing, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told his Panamanian hosts that while the U.S. military isn’t likely to invade to take over the Panama Canal, it will play the outsized role in “taking back” the Canal from “malign Chinese influence” through military cooperation with Panama. This will be a joint effort with Panamanian security forces, he insisted, even though Panama has no military to speak of. Nor is the issue one of extirpating Chinese influence from Panama, but from all of the Americas, Hegseth threatened. In opening remarks to the Central American Security Conference on April 8, Hegseth warned that “the era of capitulating to coercion by the Communist Chinese is over. Their growing and adversarial control of strategic land and critical infrastructure in this hemisphere cannot and will not stand. To accomplish this, our countries cannot face these shared threats alone. We have to face them together. America will confront, will deter and, if necessary, defeat these threats alongside all of you, our close and valued partners.”
Exemplary of his anti-China vitriol, in the joint declaration he and President José Raúl Mulino issued April 8 on joint security cooperation, Hegseth “strongly welcomed President Mulino’s commitment to make Panama the first country in our hemisphere to exit the Belt and Road Initiative and to reduce China’s problematic presence in other areas.” In an affront to Panama, this same declaration asserts that “Secretary Hegseth recognized the leadership and inalienable sovereignty of Panama over the Panama Canal and its adjacent areas,” but the English version of this declaration issued by the U.S. Defense Department omits this sentence altogether!
