America’s top diplomat, Marco Rubio, kicked off a whirlwind America First foreign policy tour with a stop in Panama. He arrived for talks with officials, including President José Raúl Mulino. The theme of Rubio’s jaunt to the equator is “paying closer attention to our own neighborhood.”
Rubio visits Panama
The first stop for Secretary of State Marco Rubio is Panama. He wanted to clear the air about who controls the canal. We do, whether they like it or not. They’re indignantly insisting that we can’t snatch control of the canal back from them.
The natives there are restless, burning him in effigy. They also torched American flags to welcome his arrival. Panama may not be real happy with what the U.S. official has to say but under the terms of the treaty, they’re in breach of contract.
The Trump administration takes the position that Panama Ports is a national security threat. They’re “a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings.” China operates huge freight terminals on both Atlantic and Pacific sides of the canal.
As Secretary Rubio points out, “if China wanted to obstruct traffic in the Panama Canal, they could.” While he’s there, the secretary will take a tour of the canal and have a one-on-one meeting with its top administrator.
Pushing that little matter to the side, the big focus is immigration. “Some countries are cooperating with us enthusiastically. Others, less so,” Rubio announced ahead of his trip.
“The former will be rewarded. For the latter, Mr. Trump has already shown that he is more than willing to use America’s considerable leverage to protect our interests. Just ask Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro.” Trump slapped him silly with a tariff threat.
Stop the migrant flood
The biggest thing Panama can do to thaw our frosty diplomatic relationship is close down the Darien Gap. The treacherous stretch of jungle is a bottleneck between South and Central America. Since Trump took over, crossings have already dropped to a trickle where Joe Biden had a flood.
“We need to work with countries of origin to halt and deter further migrant flows, and to accept the return of their citizens present in the U.S. illegally,” Rubio announced ahead of his tour.
El Salvador is one of the countries cooperating. They currently have two main things going for them. One is the fact they offer a “Safe Third Agreement” with the United States. That means they’ll take deportees for other countries. The second big advantage is their supermax prison. Rubio is expected to work a deal where we send all the Tren de Aragua criminals there instead.
“We’re looking to do a new agreement that might include the members of the Tren de Aragua, who will want to go back to Venezuela rather than having to share the prison with the Salvadorean gangs like MS-13. It’s part of what we want to discuss and how President Bukele can help us,” special envoy for Latin America Mauricio Claver-Carone relates.
When he finally makes it down to Costa Rica, “One of the subjects of discussion will be a repatriation program.” They’re also expected to take deportees from other nations off our hands. “Not only those that are coming up from South America but those that are coming from throughout the world.” Like China and Afghanistan.
While he’s down south, Rubio is expected to field a whole bunch of questions about the foreign aid freeze. The answer is simple. If the programs really do benefit the United States, they’ll be funded. Ones that don’t will be killed. Latin America is horrified because they know how that’s going to turn out.
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