US military commander meets Panama Canal administrator to discuss countering China

Panama’s president, who was warned about China’s influence by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this month, reacted with anger

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Panama Canal administrator Ricaurte Vasquez (R) talking with the head of the US Southern Command, US Admiral Alvin Holsey, during a tour of the canal’s facilities at the Miraflores Locks near Panama City, on Thursday. Photo: Panama Canal Authority / AFP

Published: 5:40am, 21 Feb 2025Updated: 6:40am, 21 Feb 2025

A US military commander met with Panama Canal administrators on Thursday to discuss ways to “counter Chinese Communist Party influence”over the critical waterway, the latest visit by a high-ranking American official to the trade channel that US President Donald Trump has said should be under Washington’s control.

Posting photos of the meeting between Alvin Holsey, the new head of US Southern Command [Southcom], and Ricaurte Vásquez, who has served at the Panama Canal’s administrator since 2019, on social media, the US embassy in Panama added that the admiral discussed ways to “protect and secure” the area around the waterway.

Panama’s president, who was warned about China’s influence by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this month, reacted with anger.

The trip was Holsey’s first to Panama since his promotion to Southcom commandership in November, after his predecessor Laura Richardson retired.

Trump sparked a furore over the canal when he claimed during his inauguration speech in January that China controls the canal, which was funded by Washington in the early 20th century and controlled by US authorities until 1999.

Rubio, the first senior official of the new administration to visit Panama, repeated that claim during a visit with Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino this month.

Rubio warned Mulino that Washington will “take measures necessary” if Panama does not immediately take steps to rid the canal of Chinese interests, which he called a threat to the waterway and a violation of the US-Panama treaty that handed control of the channel back to the Central American country.