WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Panama during his first overseas trip in the post, a source told Reuters on Thursday, as President Donald Trump makes a push for the United States to take back the Panama Canal that has angered the Central American country.
Rubio is expected to depart on Jan. 31 and travel during the first week of February, making additional stops in Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and El Salvador, according to the source who was familiar with the plans.
Planning for the trip is still ongoing and the itinerary is subject to change, the source added.
Asked about the trip, the U.S. State Department on Thursday said it did not have travel plans to announce at this time.
Trump has accused Panama of breaking the promises it made for the final transfer of the strategic waterway in 1999 and of ceding its operation to China – accusations that the Panamanian government has strongly denied.
“We didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back,” Trump said in his inaugural address on Monday.
President Jose Raul Mulino responded on X on Monday that the Panama Canal “is and will continue to be Panamanian.” Panama has also alerted the United Nations to Trump’s remarks, in a letter seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
The canal is an 82-km (51-mile) waterway that connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans through Panama and is critical to U.S. imports of autos and commercial goods by container ships from Asia, and for U.S. exports of commodities, including liquefied natural gas.
The United States largely built the canal and administered territory surrounding it for decades. The U.S. and Panama signed accords in 1977 that paved the way for the canal’s return to full Panamanian control, and Washington handed it over in 1999 after a period of joint administration.
(Reporting by Katharine Jackson; Editing by Susan Heavey and Frances Kerry)
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