WASHINGTON — Panama President José Raúl Mulino has a message for U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio ahead of his impending diplomatic visit: The Panama Canal is not up for discussion.
“It’s impossible,” Munilo said in Spanish at a press conference in Panama City on Thursday. “I cannot negotiate, and much less open a process of negotiation, over the canal. That’s sealed. The canal belongs to Panama.”
Munilo instead highlighted the critical role Panama plays in some of the Trump administration’s biggest priorities in the Western Hemisphere, from immigration to narco-trafficking and tackling organized crime. Panama is home to the Darien Gap, the treacherous jungle that countless Venezuelan and Colombian immigrants have crossed to seek asylum in the U.S.
The visit to Panama will be Rubio’s first international trip as President Donald Trump’s secretary of State. Since his election victory, Trump has repeatedly hammered Panama’s management of the waterway — critical for global trade routes — and floated plans to take it back, refusing to rule out military force in doing so.
The focus intensified in December, with Trump accusing China of expanding its influence in the management of the canal and blasting officials for charging “exorbitant prices and rates of passage.” It hasn’t stopped.
The canal was constructed by the U.S. in the early 1900s, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and ceded back to Panama by former President Jimmy Carter following the signing of two treaties in 1977.
Munilo told reporters that the David and Goliath fight that Trump has pushed is a non-starter. Panama fought for years to get access to the canal, he said. The territory is neutral, he added, and has remained so through international conflicts well before Trump’s presidency.
The canal is now managed by an independent government agency, the Panama Canal Authority.
Still, “China is operating the Panama Canal,” Trump said in his inaugural address last week. “And we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.”
Along with Panama, Rubio is also slated to visit Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Munilo said his agenda with Rubio has not been set, but he expects he will meet with the secretary on Sunday.
“The only thing that I wish is to take a lot of the trash out of the way, clear the table and be able to talk with the United States and talk frankly,” he said. “I don’t aspire to anything else.”
