PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino agreed Sunday to withdraw from China's Belt and Road development and infrastructure initiative after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned him to reduce China's role in canal operations or face American retaliation.
Rubio also viewed a deportation flight carrying 43 migrants before it took off from Panama on Monday as President Donald Trump’s administration prioritizes stopping people from making the journey to the United States.
On his second and final day in Panama City on a five-nation trip to Central America, Rubio turned his focus from the Panama Canal and Chinese influence to the issue the Republican president has championed most: immigration.
Rubio was on the tarmac for the departure of the flight, which was carrying 32 men and 11 women back to Colombia after they had crossed the Darien Gap and were stopped in Panama. It's unusual for a secretary of state to personally witness such a law enforcement operation, especially in front of cameras.
The State Department said such deportations send a strong message of deterrence and that the U.S. has provided Panama with financial assistance to the tune of almost $2.7 million in flights and tickets.
“Mass migration is one of the great tragedies in the modern era," Rubio said, speaking afterward in a nearby building. “It impacts countries throughout the world. We recognize that many of the people who seek mass migration are often victims and victimized along the way, and it’s not good for anyone.”
Rubio then traveled to El Salvador, where migration will again be a top agenda item.
His trip comes amid a sweeping freeze in U.S. foreign assistance and stop-work orders that have shut down U.S.-funded programs targeting illegal migration and crime in Central American countries. The State Department said Sunday that Rubio had approved waivers for certain critical programs in countries he is visiting, but details of those were not immediately available.
While Rubio was out of the country, staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development were instructed on Monday to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters after billionaire Elon Musk announced Trump had agreed with him to shut the agency. Thousands of USAID employees already had been laid off and programs shut down. Rubio has not spoken publicly about any plans to shut down USAID.
Monday's deportation flight came as Trump has been threatening action against nations that will not accept flights of their nationals from the United States, and he briefly hit Colombia with penalties last week for initially refusing to accept two flights. Panama has been more cooperative and has allowed flights of third-country deportees to land and sent migrants back before they reach the United States.