*Hosley arrived in the midst of a scandal over the treatment of migrant
*The Canal administration signed a cybernetic cooperation agreement with the Southern Command
*The Canal administration signed a cybernetic cooperation agreement with the Southern Command
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00:00And Lara Richardson's replacement in the Southern Command traveled to Panama from February 19th
00:05to the 20th to meet with the Canal Administrator Ricardo Tebasquez, the Foreign Minister Javier
00:10Martinez Sacha, and Security Minister Frank Abrego.
00:14Our colleague Reka Chaviramandi with the details.
00:17Alvin Hoseley, the new head of the Southern Command who replaced Lara Richardson in that
00:27division of the U.S. Department of Defense, visited Panama to increase the scope of the
00:31already tight control, now labeled as cooperation with key institutions in the country.
00:36The president of Panama had already signed several information exchange, security and
00:41migration agreements with the Joe Biden administration.
00:43However, the hostility of the new government did not prevent Hoseley's visit from sealing
00:48larger agreements, the full extent of which has yet to be revealed.
00:59The visit of the commander of the Southern Command, let it be redundant, to our territory
01:04makes it clear, loud and clear, who is giving the orders to the government, who is personally
01:09directing the operations of aggression and interference in our territory by the armed
01:13forces of the United States, by the interests, by the mandates of the White House.
01:18The acceptance on the part of the Mulino government is a disgrace, but the people will
01:22know how to respond.
01:24The people are resisting all the applications of the neoliberal model that has to do with
01:28this onslaught of imperialism.
01:35Hoseley arrived in the midst of a scandal over migrants being held in a hotel and transferred
01:40to a camp in the province of Darien, from where they would be repatriated.
01:44The scope of this concession, which some criticize as a covert military base, is also
01:49unclear.
01:50On the other hand, the insistent narrative of the United States Embassy in Panama about
01:54the alleged direct threat from the Chinese Communist Party annoyed the president.
02:03We are not going to talk about lies, that is adding to the morbidity that somehow has
02:08been created around the Chinese issue in Panama and the control of the Chinese Communist Party
02:13in the canal.
02:14For God's sake.
02:21The president cannot claim here that he is only going to talk about the canal, that he
02:25is only going to talk about sovereignty.
02:27He cannot do that.
02:29The national territory cannot be alienated, sold, or ceded to anyone or to any foreign
02:33state, and that base of Darien is to alienate and cede our territory.
02:41Contradictorily, while Trump throws darts at the Panamanian government, the Canal Administration
02:49signed a cyber cooperation understanding with the Southern Command that includes training
02:54in cybersecurity, supply chain security, information exchange, and technical assistance, which
03:00in turn expands the agreement signed in 2022 by the United States.
03:04The same day Hosley left, the Canal declared as a priority the construction of the Indian
03:09River Reservoir and allocated funds for it, a project rejected by the communities in the
03:14northwestern part of the basin that would be flooded.
03:17This study was carried out by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and U.S. investors are
03:21already eyeing this project.
03:23At the same time, while the concessions fail to placate Trump's onslaught, the Panamanian
03:28government and the Canal Administration hired lobbyists and lawyers in the United States
03:32to defend the country, ironically, from the United States itself.