By MATTHEW LEE and JUAN ZAMORANO
Updated 2:34 PM CST, February 2, 2025
PANAMA CITY (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino on Sunday that the Central American ally must immediately reduce Chinese influence over the Panama Canal area or face potential retaliation from the Trump administration.
Rubio, on his first foreign trip as America’s top diplomat, held face-to-face talks with Mulino, who has resisted pressure from the new U.S. government over Panama’s management of a waterway that is vital to global trade.
Mulino told reporters after the meeting that Rubio made “no real threat of retaking the canal or the use of force.”
Speaking on behalf of President Donald Trump, who has demanded that the canal be returned to U.S. control, Rubio told Mulino that Trump had made a preliminary determination that China’s presence in the canal area violates a treaty that led to the United States turning the waterway over to Panama in 1999. That treaty calls for the permanent neutrality of the American-built canal, which Rubio planned to tour later Sunday.
“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,” the State Department said in a summary of the meeting.
more
https://apnews.com/article/panama-rubio-trump-canal-mulino-illegal-immigration-f159e218e66812bc0e462d8fb8bb5b5f
