Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Panama City, Jan 31.- Led by construction workers, popular protests began today across the country in Panama in rejection of the visit of the Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio.
As it was known, Rubio will arrive at the isthmus, the first point of a Latin American tour that will take him to Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, to review the Trump agenda, which in the case of Panama underlines President Donald Trump's threat of take back the Canal.
The head of US diplomacy will arrive on Saturday night to meet with the host president, José Raúl Mulino, on Sunday, according to the program published in local media.
That same day, the delegation will go to the Caribbean province of Colon, at Rubio's request, to tour the AES Panama project, the first plant and reception terminal powered by natural gas in Central America; an investment by North American companies of more than a billion dollars.
Then a tour of the interoceanic waterway is planned, which does not include any meeting, so far, with its administrator Ricaurte Vásquez.
On Monday, February 3, Rubio will supervise a repatriation flight of irregular migrants to Colombia, which will depart from the Marcos A. Gelabert airport in Albrook, in this capital, as part of the memorandum signed between Panama and the United States on July 1.
In one of the closures of the main arteries of the capital, Ronald Adamson, one of the leaders in the powerful Single National Union of Construction and Similar Industry Workers (Suntracs, for its acronym in Spanish) told Prensa Latina that no one from outside has to come to tell Panamanians how to face their internal problems such as the law promoted by the Government and intends to privatize and steal the resources of the Social Security Fund, a public entity that cares for retirees.
“We do not accept and we are not going to allow Trump's envoy to come and dictate lines to a free and sovereign country and we demand that the directors of the Panama Canal Authority, who have stolen the money from its operations and profits, be judged, which belongs to all Panamanians,” he remarked.
Also the general secretary of Suntracs, Saul Mendez, told this news agency that the diplomat has nothing to look for in this country.
Méndez called on the official and his government to respect the Treaties signed in September 1977, in Washington, by Presidents James Carter (1977-1981) and Omar Torrijos (1979-1981) that returned the administration of the interoceanic waterway to the Isthmus in 1999.
On the other hand, the former presidential candidate in 2019 rejected the so-called Neutrality Treaty and the Deconcini Amendment, signed without anyone's approval, he said, as it grants the United States the right to defend the Canal against any threat, whether from a foreign power or from a peaceful protest, without requiring the approval of Panama.
The day before, the general secretary of the National Confederation of Independent Trade Union Unity (Conusi), Marco Andrade, called for a popular mobilization this Friday in the vicinity of the National Assembly (parliament) in defense of sovereignty against the threats of the Republican magnate to "recover", without ruling out the use of military force.
Andrade indicated that the recovery of the interoceanic waterway in 1999 and its efficient administration in these last 25 years, is the result of a struggle of several generations that has cost the blood and lives of its martyrs for the return of that work and the adjacent areas to its true owners, the Panamanians.
The spokesman for the alliance People United for Life also questioned and said that they appreciate with pain the traitorous compatriots who, ignoring history, believe that the Canal has been administered by the United States. (Text and photos: PL)
