Rubio off to Central America with Panama Canal and immigration top of mind – National

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio is launching this weekend during his first trip abroad, heading for Central America to make the press of the press president Donald Trump – braking illegal immigration – and Bring the message that the United States wants to recover control of the Panama Canal despite intense resistance from regional leaders.

It is an unusual destination for the first trip of the first American diplomat, whose predecessors have generally favored Europe or Asia for their initial outings. It reflects not only the personal interest that Rubio – the first Hispanic to occupy the post of the country’s highest -end cabinet – has in the region but also the intention of the Trump administration to concentrate a large part of its energy foreign policy near his home.

“It is not an accident that my first trip abroad as Secretary of State keeps me in the hemisphere,” wrote Rubio in the Wall Street Journal on Friday.

Limiting immigration and the fight against the smuggling of narcotics are major elements of this effort, but another key priority will be to slow down the growing influence of China in the western hemisphere, surmounted to reaffirm control of the United States on the Panama canal. The channel built by the Americans was given to the Panamanians in 1999 and they strongly opposed Trump’s request to put it back.

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Mass migration, drugs and hostile policies exercised by Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela have wreaked havoc, Rubio said in the opinion review. “During all this time, the Chinese Communist Party uses a diplomatic and economic lever effect – as in the Panama Canal – to oppose the United States and transform sovereign nations into vassal states.”

Indeed, Rubio’s first judgment during the five nations tour on Saturday will be Panama, whose president, José Raúl Mulino, says that there will be no negotiation with the United States for the property of the Canal. He said that he hoped that Rubio’s visit would rather focus on shared interests such as migration and the fight against drug trafficking.

“It’s impossible, I cannot negotiate,” said Mulino on Thursday. “The canal belongs to Panama.”

However, Rubio said he would clarify Trump’s intention. In an interview Thursday with the host of Siriusxm Megyn Kelly, he said that Trump’s desire to regain control of the Panama Canal is motivated by legitimate national security interests resulting from increasing concerns concerning activity and influence Chinese in Latin America.

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“We are going to tackle this subject,” he said. “The president was clear enough that he wants to administer the channel again. Obviously, the Panamanians are not big fans of this idea. This message was very clear. »»


Click to play the video: `` Protesters burn Trump's effigy on the threat of taking control of the Panama '' ''


The demonstrators burn Trump’s effigy on the threat of taking control of the Panama Canal


Chinese investments in ports and other infrastructures and installations at the ends of the Pacific and the Caribbean of the canal are a major concern, leaving Panama and the Vulnerable Critical Expedition route to China, he said.

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Rubio added that “if China wanted to hinder traffic in the Panama Canal, they could”, and it would be a violation of the 1977 Treaty signed by former President Jimmy Carter under which the United States then transferred control .

Despite the rejection by Mulino of any negotiations on property, some believe that Panama could be open to a compromise in which the operations of the channel on both sides are removed from the company Hutchison Ports, based in Hong Kong. An audit on the ability of this extension is already underway and could lead to a process of re -enact.


What is not clear is if Trump would accept the transfer of the concession to an American or European company to respond to its requests, which seem to cover more than simple operations.

“In some respects, Trump pushes an open door,” said Ryan Berg, director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington reflection group. “But it will depend on the definition of its red lines.”

“There has been a lot of heavy rhetoric and it will be Rubio to clarify it,” said Berg, adding that a kind of compromise was possible “but we will have to see if it is really serious at the idea of ​​taking it back. If this is the case, nothing less than it will satisfy him.

Rubio will arrive in Panama on Saturday for meetings the next day with Mulino and the channel administrator. He will then go to Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.

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His arrival will come just a day after the United States has resumed visa treatment to its Bogota, Colombia embassy, ​​which had been closed Sunday after the Colombian government refused to accept two plants of plants of Colombian deportees of the Colombian deportees of the Colombian deportees UNITED STATES.

The previous Secretaries of State have often traveled abroad with so -called “deliverables” – assistance packages, new cooperation and other initiatives – which they can announce with each judgment. However, as with Colombia, Rubio cannot be able to wear a limited relief from an American frost on foreign aid Trump has ordered an examination of all programs.

In Latin America, such programs have generally focused on the police, contingible operations and efforts to stem illegal migration. Rubio has made arrangements for certain programs providing vital assistance to be exempt from the financing break, and requests for waivering programs in several of the countries they will visit are under examination.

Among the countries for which derogations from certain programs have been submitted are Panama, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and its neighbor, Haiti. Although Rubio will not go to Haiti, the State Department has already granted some $ 41 million to support an international peacekeeping force to move forward.


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Donald Trump threatens to regain control of the Panama Canal


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