Panama denies US announcement that your ships can travel by channel without paying, Marco Rubio reiterates it

The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, ratified on Thursday that “it seems absurd” that American ships have to pay rates to travel through the Panama Canal, in response to the Panamanian president who earlier that those ships can already Transmit on the sea without paying tolls, as the Donald Trump government said on the eve.

“I am not confused with respect to Panama. We had conversations. I felt that they were solid initial steps. We have expectations,” Rubio said during a joint press conference with the president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader.

Rubio, who visited Panama as the first stop on the tour of countries in the region and met with President José Raúl Mulino, said that the United States “has the obligation of the treaty to protect the Panama Canal if it is attacked.”

“That obligation of the treaty would have to be applied by the United States Armed Forces,” said Rubio.

The reaction of the US Secretary of State arrives hours after President Mulino defrara has agreed exemptions for the passage of American ships through the channel and considered the statement of the State Department, who affirmed that, of “simple and simply intolerable “

“Today Panama raises through you to the world, my absolute rejection that we continue to explore the way to handle the bilateral relationship on the basis of lies and falsehoods,” Mulino said on Thursday.

The president, who met with Rubio during his visit to Panama in recent days, said he “surprised him very much” the American statement.

Before journalists, Mulino said that as a president he does not have the power or legal or constitutional to influence toll fixing issues through the Panama Canal.

Article 76 of the Law of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), in addition to article 319 numeral 2 of the Political Constitution, clearly establishes that neither the Government nor the authority may exonerate the payment of tolls, rights or fees for the provision of channel services, he mentioned.

Later, Mulino reported through of your x account that had been informed by a senior official who will talk with Trump on Friday afternoon.

“They are making an important, institutional statement of the entity that governs the foreign policy of the United States under the president of the United States based on a falsehood and that is intolerable,” said the president.

On Wednesday, those responsible for the transoceanic route had denied the US statement.

The channel authority, an autonomous agency supervised by the Panamanian government, indicated that it had not made any change to collect tolls or rights to cross the channel in a statement that, he said, was a direct response to US statements.

According to Washington, the exemption of payments in the channel would save millions of dollars a year. “The Panama Government has agreed not to collect more rates for the United States government ships to travel through the Panama Canal,” said the department before In a post in x.

Analysts claim that the refusal of the channel’s directive and its claim that it does not offer preferential treatment to any nation could raise bilateral tensions after US President Donald Trump insisted on recovering the passage control.

“With absolute responsibility, the authority of the Panama Canal, as indicated, is willing to establish a dialogue with the relevant officials of the United States regarding the transit of warships in that country,” the channel authority replied.

Panama has become the spotlight of the Trump administration. The president has accused the Central American country to collect excessive rates for using its commercial passage, one of the busiest in the world.

“If the principles are not followed, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving, then we will demand that they return the Panama Canal, in its entirety and without questions,” Trump said last month.

Trump has also repeatedly stated that Panama has given the control of the channel to China, something that Panamanian and Chinese governments deny.

The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, He met with the Panamanian president, José Raúl MulinoAt the beginning of this week as part of a trip through Central America, in which Mulino promised to withdraw the country from the initiative of the Strip and the Route of China.

Mulino has also repeatedly rejected Trump’s proposals for the United States to resume control of the channel, which he largely built and administered for decades.

However, the United States and Panama signed a couple of agreements in 1977 that raided the way for the channel to be fully under Panamanian control again. The United States delivered it in 1999 after a joint administration period.

Panamanians react

A team of the Voice of America He took to the streets to know the reactions of the Panamanians before this new incident between the two countries.

“Why don’t the Americans pay? We have to pay to go to the channel, to go to their tourist facilities,” said a Panamanian. Why are they not going to pay if they have more money than Panama?

Another young Panamanian asked President José Raúl Mulino to maintain his rejection position expressed by the president this Thursday.

“Panama has to be respected and I also feel that it is a lack of respect from the part of the United States government to make such a comment and well I hope that the president (from Panama) remains in his approach,” he said.

Other people consulted asked Mulino “not being soft” from the government.

“(Mulino’s government) has to maintain its stable position, that we are sovereign and that the sovereign position on what Panama is directly is ours. We cannot be soft or have concessions with anyone,” said another Panamanian this morning this morning In Panama City.

(With Milagro Vallecillos report, collaborator of La Voz de América in Panama and Reuters information)

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