Panama’s president alleges US threatening to revoke visas over China ties

Jose Raul Mulino says the visa-removal argumentation is ‘not coherent’ with the ‘good relationship’ helium hopes to person with the US.

Panama President Jose Raul Mulino said that idiosyncratic astatine the United States Embassy has been threatening to cancel the visas of Panamanian officials.

His statements travel arsenic the medication of US President Donald Trump pressures Panama to bounds its ties to China.

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Responding to a reporter’s question astatine his play quality conference, Mulino said — without offering grounds — that an authoritative astatine the US Embassy is “threatening to instrumentality visas”, adding that specified actions are “not coherent with the bully narration I aspire to support with the United States”. He did not sanction the official.

The US Embassy successful Panama did not instantly respond to a petition for comment. The Trump medication has antecedently declined to remark connected idiosyncratic visa decisions.

But successful September, the US Department of State said successful a connection that the state was committed to countering China’s power successful Central America. It added that it would restrict visas for radical who maintained relationships with China’s Communist Party oregon undermined ideology successful the portion connected behalf of China.

Earlier this week, the Trump medication revoked the visas of six foreigners deemed by US officials to person made derisive comments oregon made airy of the assassination of blimpish activistic Charlie Kirk past month.

Similar cases person surfaced precocious successful the region. In April, erstwhile Costa Rica President and Nobel Peace Prize victor Oscar Arias said the US had cancelled his visa. In July, Vanessa Castro, vice president of Costa Rica’s Congress, said that the US Embassy told her her visa had been revoked, citing alleged contacts with the Chinese Communist Party.

Panama has go particularly sensitive to the US-China tensions due to the fact that of the strategically important Panama Canal.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Panama successful February connected his archetypal overseas travel arsenic the apical US diplomat and called for Panama to instantly trim China’s power implicit the canal.

Panama has powerfully denied Chinese power implicit canal operations but has gone on with US pressure to propulsion the Hong Kong-based institution that operated ports connected some ends of the canal to merchantability its concession to a consortium.

Mulino has said that Panama volition support the canal’s neutrality.

“They’re escaped to springiness and instrumentality a visa to anyone they want, but not threatening that, ‘If you don’t bash something, I’ll instrumentality the visa,'” Mulino said Thursday.

He noted that the underlying contented — the struggle betwixt the US and China — “doesn’t impact Panama”.