Rubio will visit the canal and meet Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, the first talks between the countries since U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to take control of the canal
China’s presence around the Panama Canal is a national security concern that Panama’s government has to deal with, Mauricio Claver-Carone, the U.S. special envoy for Latin America, said on Friday, ahead of U.S. top diplomat Marco Rubio’s visit to the country.
Rubio will also visit El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, where the Trump administration’s efforts to repatriate migrants from the region and stem migration into the U.S. will be on the agenda, Claver-Carone said in a briefing call with reporters. Claver-Carone said it was not Mulino’s fault that China’s presence around the canal “got completely out of hand” under previous Panamanian governments, but added that the Panamanian president now “has to deal with it.
“So that will be an issue of discussion.” Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings has for more than two decades operated the ports at the canal’s entrances. The company is publicly listed and not financially tied to the Chinese government, though Hong Kong firms are subject to government oversight.China’s economic influence has been growing in Latin America, fuelling worries in Washington that the resource-rich region will tilt to Chinese interests rather than those of the U.S.
Panama is awaiting the results of an audit into CK Hutchinson’s payments to the state, which analysts say could provide Panama with a pretext to alter its concession with the company.
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