Rubio in Central America with a panam channel and an immigration tip of mind – nationally

State Secretary Marco Rubio is going on his first foreign journey this weekend, moving to Central America to press the main priority of President Donald Trump – Suppression of illegal immigration – and bring a message that they now want to recover control over the Panaman channel despite intense resistance from regional leader.

It is an unusual destination for the maiden trip of the best American diplomat, whose predecessors generally favored Europe or Asia for their initial exit. This is not only reflected in the personal interest that Rubio – the first Latin American to hold the highest state of the cabinet – has in the region, but also the intention of Trump’s administration to focus most of his foreign policy near the house.

“It’s no coincidence that the first trip abroad will keep me on the hemisphere as a state secretary,” Rubijah wrote on Friday at Wall Street Journal.

Limiting immigration and fighting narcotics is the main elements of this effort, but another key priority will suppress the growing influence of China on the Western hemisphere, at the top, confirming the US control over the Panaman Channel. The American channel was handed over to Panamanic in 1999 and are strongly complained to Trump’s request to hand it over.

Mass migrations, drugs and hostile policies that conducted Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela have devastated, Rubija said in Menict. “All the time, the Chinese Communist Party uses diplomatic and economic influences – like a Panama channel – to oppose the US -Ii transform sovereign nations into vassal states.”

Indeed, he ruined his first stop on a five -nation tour on Saturday will be Panama, whose President José Raúl Mulino says there will be no negotiations with the United States over the ownership of the canal. He said he hoped that Rubio’s visit would instead focus on common interests such as migration and fight against drug trade.

“It’s impossible, I can’t negotiate,” Mulino said on Thursday. “The channel belongs to Panami.”

Still, Rubio said he would clearly express Trump’s intention. In an interview with host Siriusxm on Thursday, Megyn Kelly said that Trump’s desire to take control of the Panaman channel was guided by the legitimate interests of national security arising from increasing concerns about Chinese activity and influence in Latin America.

“We will deal with this topic,” he said. “The president was quite clear that he wanted to manage the channel again. Obviously, Panamani are not a big fans of that idea. This message was set very clear.”

Chinese investments in ports and other infrastructure and objects on the Pacific and the Caribbean region of the channel are a cause for great concern, and Panama and the critical path of shipping vulnerable at China, he said.

Rubio added that “if China wanted to obstruct traffic in the Panaman Channel, they could be”, which would be a violation of the 1977 contract signed by former President Jimmy Carter under which they have now provided control.

Despite Mulin’s rejection of any ownership negotiations, some believe that Panama may be open to a compromise in which the channel operations on both sides were seized by Hong Kong based in the Hutchison Ports, which received a 25-year extension without pre-election to lead them. The revision of the appropriateness of this extension is already underway and could lead to the rehearsal procedure.

It is unclear whether Trump accepts the transfer of a concession to the American or European company as fulfilling his requests, and they seem to cover more than only surgery.

“In some ways, Trump is pushing on the open door,” said Ryan Berg, director of the US program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington Think Tank. “But it will depend on how his red lines are defined.”

“There was a lot of heavy rhetoric and he would ruin her,” Berg said, adding that a kind of compromise is possible, “but we will have to see if it is really serious about bringing it back. If this is the case, then nothing less will to satisfy. “

Rubio will arrive in Panama on Saturday for meetings next day with Mulin and the canal administrator. He will then travel to El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.

His arrival will only come a day after he continued to process a visa at his embassy in Bogota in Colombia, which was closed on Sunday after the Colombian government refused to accept two canvas of Colombian deported from the United States.

Previous state secretaries have often traveled abroad with the so-called “results”-the packets of help, new initiatives for cooperation and the like-who can be published at every point of view. However, as is the case with Colombia, Rubio may be able to bring a limited relief from the US freezing to the side of the help that Trump has ordered to wait for the examination of all programs.

In Latin America, such programs have mostly focused on police, counter -on surgery and efforts to stop illegal migration. Rubio provided provisions for certain programs to help save life in order to exclude the financing break, and applications for renunciation of programs in several countries that will be visited are viewed.

Among the countries for which the renunciations for certain programs have been submitted are Panama, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and his neighbor, Haiti. Although Rubio will not travel to Haiti, State Department has already allowed some $ 41 million in support of the international peacekeeping forces there to continue.

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