US State Secretary Marco Rubio, along with the leader of the Panama, on Sunday entered the talks to suppress the demand of President Donald Trump that the United States withdraws control of the Panama Canal.
Trump has refused to return to the dangers to seize the important waterway and it is not clear what Rubio can get diplomatically that will please him, Panama strongly strongly gave any claim against his sovereignty. Rejected.
In his first meeting, Rubio went to his first meeting as the top American diplomat, in the old quarter of the tropical capital, in the old quarter of the tropical capital, the official residence of President Jose Raul Mulino went out as an honor guard outside the white walls.
Rubio joined hands with External Affairs Minister Xavier Martinez-Ka and put a thumb-up symbol before going into a conversation with Mulino. He did not comment for the press.
Rubio will later visit the Panama Canal during the day, important links between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through which some 40 percent of the US container traffic passes.
Trump and Rubio say that American competitive China has gained a lot of power around the canal and can close it in a possible conflict, with terrible consequences for the United States.
In response to the pressure, Mulino ordered an audit of a Hong Kong based company, which controls the ports on both sides of the canal.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said it was not enough and Panama handed over to the canal by the United States in late 1999, Panama “completely violated”.
“They have already offered many things,” Trump said on Friday of Panama, “But we think it is appropriate that we take it back.”
Protest against sovereignty
Prior to Rubio’s visit, there were protests scattered in Panama, in which a red, white and blue suit caught fire.
Deogens Sanchez, a professor who participated in protests, vowed to defend the sovereignty of Panama.
“We strongly reject the claims of the United States to convert Panama into a protector and colony,” he said.
Panama Canal – which Trump dubbed as a modern “wonder of the world” – was built by the United States at the cost of thousands of laborers, mostly people of Barbados, Jamaica and other places in the Caribbean.
The United States maintained control of the canal over opening in 1914, but in 1964, the Panamanis started interacting after the deadly riots, angry over foreign control.
Jimmy Carter sealed the agreement that gave the canal to Panama in late 1999, the late President saw a moral imperative to honor a small but still sovereign country for the United States.
Trump takes a very different approach and returned to the “Big Stick” approach in the early 20th century, in which the United States threatened the force that it in its own way, especially in Latin America.
In his first week at the office, Trump prepared large -scale tariffs on Colombia, so that the country’s leftist president complained that he was not being treated in a dignified manner.
As Rubio began his journey, Trump on Saturday signed sanctions on top three American trading partners – Canada, Mexico and China.
The state’s first Hispanic secretary and a pureman Catholic, Rubio, attended a month in Panama City on a church built four centuries ago in Old City in Panama City.
He will travel to four more Latin American countries – Al Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Dominican Republic – where he is expected to press to cooperate on Trump’s major priority to existing migrants from the United States.
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