On February 2, 2025, Panama offered several concessions to the United States following a meeting between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Jose Raul Mulino. The concessions include:
Free passage for US warships through the Panama Canal.
Withdrawal from China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Optimizing transit priority for US Navy ships through the waterway.
These concessions were made in response to concerns raised by the US regarding Chinese influence over the Panama Canal and the high fees charged to US ships. Additionally, the Panamanian government discussed migration issues, offering an airstrip near the Darien Gap for repatriation proceedings.
Maybe I can breathe again re: BLX? But I am pissed. The Orange bully got his way. Granted, the Chinese installations---non-military--- did make me itch.
Comments
I heard this on the radio this morning and the first word that popped into my head was "extortion".
That's a nice canal you have over there. Sure would be a shame if something were to happen to it.
The quotes sound like a Rubio PR piece.
Take "high fees charged to US ships". Rubio himself acknowledged: "the high fees for canal transit disproportionately affect Americans, because U.S. cargo accounts for nearly three-quarters of canal transits".
Use the canal more, pay more. That doesn't seem so hard to understand.
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2025/1/sen-cruz-evidence-shows-panama-may-be-in-violation-of-canal-treaty
Withdrawal from China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Panama conceded nonrenewal, not withdrawal, though it will attempt the latter.
https://nypost.com/2025/02/03/us-news/panama-to-end-relationship-with-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative/
"Free passage" and "optimizing transit priority" sound like they may violate the Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal between Panama and the US. https://2001-2009.state.gov/p/wha/rlnks/11936.htm
President Trump hardly got his way.
"Records indicate that during the period of US construction, more than 55,000 people were employed and an estimated 5,600 died of injury and disease. The death toll would have been higher without effective protocols to control vectorborne diseases, in effect a second “special wonder of the canal.” LINK
The French lost the other 20K during their effort to construct the canal prior to going bankrupt.
$375,000,000 in 1914 = $11,835,187,500 in 2025. So what?
@Gary1952 has a lot in common with that army helicopter pilot: "I have the aircraft in sight". Right.
Trumpers just make up fake "facts" whenever it suits them (which is most of the time).
in reality, canal pay per use w/out upkeep, and w/out having to support the entire nation of panama to an american std-of-living (even that of missibama) is a bargain.
Edit: I see others have already corrected the numbers.
Add: Very few seem to have good instincts for reality, continually oscillating between extremes.
Pardon my ignorance / lack of imagination.
One of the posters has been posting GQP for GOP. What does the Q in GQP stand for?
If you do not know the answer, I will ask the poster about it when I see it next time.
Today's online world is overflowing with slop and worse than slop. Go away ffs.
Q is the old MAGA which is now consigned to the role of useful enablers. Current GOP is run by the new MAGA. I was going to call it Grand Billionaires’ Party but that confuses with the pre-Trump era. I will have to wait for someone creative to come up with the new name / acronym that is descriptive enough to capture the new MAGA.