Rubio Panama calls for “reducing the effect of China” on the channel

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for Panama to make “immediate changes” to what he calls “China's influence and control” on Panama.

The best diplomat in America said that Panama should act or that the United States will take the necessary measures to protect its rights under a treaty between the two countries.

This warning comes as President Donald Trump pledged to restore the channel and the meeting between Rubio and Jose Raul Moulino, the conservative president in Panama, in the city of Panama on Sunday.

The two men seemed to come out of their meeting for two hours with different interpretations.

Mulino told the correspondents that he had not seen a serious threat to the American military force to seize the channel, saying that he suggested that he had talks at the technical level with the United States to address Mr. Trump's concerns about the Chinese influence.

However, Trump's pledge to restore the channel has sparked a major violent reaction in Panama. The demonstrators in the city of Panama burned the blood of Trump and Rubio.

The riot police moved to another crowd of demonstrators, fired on tear gas and struggled with people. The clashes were small in size, but resisting the position of the American President was widely perceived.

On Thursday, Mulino said that the issue of ownership of the channel will not be a discussion with Rubio.

“I cannot negotiate or even open a negotiating process around the channel. It is sealed, the channel belongs to Panama,” he said.

Mr. Trump's comments about the channel It included an unfounded claim The Chinese soldiers run it. He also said that American ships were more fairly charged more than others, despite the fact that this practice will be illegal under the treaty agreements.

In fact, it is owned by the waterway and run by the Panamanian government, according to a neutral treaty signed with the United States decades ago. However, Chinese companies have invested heavily in ports and stations near the canal. Hong Kong -based company runs two of the five ports near its entrances.

But President Trump's muscular approach – in order to refuse to exclude military action to take the channel – has sparked a strong national reaction to the small strategic nation.

“It is ridiculous,” says Mary, a resident of Panama City, who asked not to publish his title.

“There is a treaty that must be respected, and there is nothing in the treaty that says we cannot be ports run by the Chinese,” she told the BBC, noting that there is a Chinese investment in American ports and cities.

Mary explained that many residents have strong memories of controlling the channel and do not want to return, surrounded by tourists and kiosks that scream at hats and souvenirs.

The United States and Panama signed a treaty in 1979, when the delivery process that witnessed full control of Panama began in the channel in 1999.

Mary said: “We were unable to cross into the canal area without arresting us if we did not follow all American bases. The moment I went up those borders, I was in the United States.”

“We had no rights within our country, and we will not bear it again … We are very insulting to the words (Trump).”

For some, Trump's refusal to exclude the use of military force has raised doubt and fear. It raises the memories of the 1989 American invasion of the actual ruler of General Manuel Nuriga, a several -week conflict and rapidly overcome the Panamanian forces.

“I was the political leader of the opposition when Nuriga said that he would kill all opposition leaders if the United States is invading,” remembers the former Congress member in Panama Edwin Kapreira, speaking to the BBC by the quiet surrounding canal locks.

“I heard the bombs and started seeing people dying … the only thing that President Trump and Rubio left to say they would invade us,” he told the BBC. “I do not want to live again in the twenty -first century, the imperial experience recovers. Panama in the middle of the war between two forces, the United States of America and China, while we look at the sky.”

Marco Rubio is the first Spanish secretary secretary and is famous for his loud positions in some leaders in the region and in China. While Panama was closely cooperated with the United States on many issues, Mr. Rubio's visit aims to indicate the administration's intolerance to countries that accommodate Chinese investment in what the United States sees in its backyard.

In Panama, it claims that China can ultimately use its interests in ports to prevent merchant or war ships in the event of a commercial conflict or war.

“If China wants to obstruct traffic on Panama, they can. This is a fact … this is what President Trump raises and we will deal with this issue … this dynamics cannot continue,” said Rubio in Fox News last week.

Despite the overwhelming support between the ordinary Panicosin of the ownership of their country for the channel, some are still skeptical of their own leadership, as they argue with profits from the waterway that does not nominate enough of the ordinary Paniconians.

“What you see here – the United States and Donald Trump wants to restore the channel – and this is what we call the cause and the result,” says André Huil, the hotel worker at the historic center of Panama.

He said, “They do not run the Panama channel in the right way … None of the Panamans (B) benefits (” he said.