Secretary of State Marco Rubio is reportedly heading to Panama as early as next week for his first foreign trip as the head of the U.S. State Department.
The trip sends a clear message that President Donald Trump is serious about removing communist China’s influence from the canal and taking back the engineering marvel that the U.S. built more than a century ago.
Rubio is also planning on visiting Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica, Bloomberg News reported.
The former U.S. Senator from Florida became Trump’s first confirmed cabinet secretary during his second term in office when he received a 99-0 vote in the Senate this week.
Panamanian President Jose Mulino released a statement shortly after Trump took office rejecting his push to reassert sovereignty over the Panama Canal, which Trump mentioned in his inaugural speech.
“We will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs,” Trump said. “President McKinley made our country very rich, through tariffs and through talent.”
“He was a natural businessman and gave Teddy Roosevelt the money for many of the great things he did, including the Panama Canal, which has foolishly been given to the country of Panama after the United States — the United States — I mean, think of this — spent more money than ever spent on a project before and lost 38,000 lives in the building of the Panama Canal,” he continued. “We have been treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made. And Panama’s promise to us has been broken. The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated. American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape, or form. And that includes the United States Navy. And above all, China is operating the Panama Canal, and we didn’t give it to China; we gave it to Panama. And we’re taking it back.”
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Mulino said in his statement: “I must reject in its entirety the words expressed by President Donald Trump regarding Panama and its Canal in his inaugural address.”
“I reiterate what I expressed in my message to the Nation on December 22: the Canal is and will continue to be Panama’s and its administration will continue to be under Panamanian control with respect to its permanent neutrality,” he said. “There is no presence of any nation in the world that interferes with our administration.”
