(AFP) – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday voiced optimism that Panama would address concerns over Chinese influence in the Panama Canal, bringing down the tone after President Donald Trump’s threats to seize the vital waterway. A day after he demanded through a statement that Panama take immediate steps, Rubio took a more diplomatic approach, acknowledging the issue was “delicate” for Panama and praising its efforts.
“It was a worthwhile visit and very respectful. It is one that I think is going to achieve potentially good things that assuage concerns we have,” Rubio told reporters after arriving from Panama in El Salvador. “Time will tell — we’ll see — but I feel good about it,” he said. Rubio praised Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino’s decision to exit the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s signature infrastructure-building program. Mulino, speaking to reporters Sunday, said that Panama would not renew its membership and would look whether it can leave earlier than planned.
Rubio called it a “good” step, noting that Panama — which recognized Beijing over Taiwan during Trump’s first term — becomes the first country in Latin America to ditch the Belt and Road. Rubio said to expect more announcements in the coming days. He suggested an agreement on US concerns over Panama charging US military vessels that go through the canal even though Washington is obliged to defend the waterway, the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
Trump in his inaugural address said the United States would be “taking back” the canal — built more than a century ago by Washington with Afro-Caribbean labor and handed back at the end of 1999 to Panama. Just Sunday, Trump warned of “very powerful” actions against Panama. Rubio praised Panama as a “great partner” on Trump’s top priority of stopping migration. Before leaving Panama, Rubio observed a flight back of Colombians detained as they crossed the Darien Gap, a dense jungle that many migrants pass through towards the United States, through a deportation program negotiated under former president Joe Biden.
Rubio will find another close partner in El Salvador, whose iron-fisted president, Nayib Bukele, has won hero status with some in Trump’s orbit. Bukele has launched a sweeping crackdown on crime that includes mass warrantless detentions, triggering criticism from human rights groups but sky-high approval ratings by a population appreciative of a sharp drop in crime in what was once one of the world’s most violent countries. Rubio will speak to Bukele about taking in deported migrants from US nemesis Venezuela, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, the US special envoy on Latin America.
Trump since taking office last month has stripped the roughly 600,000 Venezuelans of protection from deportation ordered by Biden because of the economic and security crisis in the South American country run by US nemesis Nicolas Maduro.
The Trump administration, with its friendship with Bukele, has so far not touched protected status from deportation for some 232,000 Salvadorans in the United States which was also extended by Biden. On the eve of Rubio’s visit, Bukele unabashedly associated himself with Trump by backing his effort to dismantle US foreign assistance. Posting — in English — on X, Bukele repeated talking points of Trump’s billionaire friend Elon Musk and right-wing populists by alleging that US assistance mostly goes to fund opposition groups including non-governmental organizations.
“Cutting this so-called aid isn’t just beneficial for the United States; it’s also a big win for the rest of the world,” Bukele wrote. El Salvador received some $138 million in US assistance in the 2023 fiscal year, led by support for the government and civil society and for basic education, according to official US figures. Guests at Bukele’s second inauguration last year included the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. and Tucker Carlson, the right-wing journalist close to Trump.
However, Bukele may still need to reassure one dissonant voice — Trump himself. In his speech to the Republican nominating convention last year, Trump unexpectedly criticized Bukele, dismissing his record fighting crime and alleging that instead El Salvador was “sending their murderers to the United States of America.” – Shaun TANDON
© 2024 AFP
