Rubio makes nice on first trip abroad but keeps an eye on Trump

WASHINGTON — In his first overseas stop as the top U.S. diplomat, Marco Rubio went to Panama and secured an agreement for the U.S. Navy to travel freely through the Panama Canal. It was a win sure to please President Donald Trump, whose threats to take back the waterway had dominated the first weeks of his second term.

Then came a State Department social media post, boasting that all U.S. government vessels — not just Navy ships — would travel the waterway free of charge. That contradicted the message Panamanian President Raul Mulino had been conveying — of maintaining his obligation of neutrality regarding the canal and keeping talk of payments quiet. Blindsided, he denounced the post as “lies and falsehoods.”

What had looked like a major accomplishment turned into a headache for Rubio.

The episode highlighted the tensions that dogged Rubio, a former Florida senator, as he wound his way through Central America on a six-day trip this past week. There were the regional leaders Rubio met with — often with grins, hugs and promises to work together. And then there was his boss back home, and his demand for victories and tough talk.

“Diplomacy requires a certain flexibility and willingness to build relationships that’s different than public messaging,” said Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America program at the Wilson Center. “This might be a more extreme version of that.”

For much of his first tour as secretary of State, Rubio seemed to maintain the balancing act. A longtime politician, he’s comfortable in front of cameras and hobnobbing with strangers. That was on display after he arrived in Panama, when he slipped out of his hotel early last Sunday to go to church.

He lingered outside afterward, posing for photos with congregants, including holding an infant with a pacifier who was thrust into his arms.

Given the delicacy of the high-wire act, Rubio’s decision to choose Latin America as his first destination appeared to be a canny one

A son of Cuban immigrants, who spoke Spanish before he could speak English, Rubio is using faith and language to connect with people in the region in a way that his predecessors couldn’t.

Yet it’s also a place where Trump has important priorities, chiefly immigration. Rubio ticked that box by overseeing an operation in which Panama deported migrants from Colombia. His visit to the Canal included the delivery of broadsides about alleged Chinese influence.

“It’s his wheelhouse,” said Kimberly Breier, a senior adviser at Covington & Burling LLP who served in Trump’s first term. “He chose well his first trip.”

Rubio carried the aggressive message from Washington with a smile and handshakes, making clear he expected key concessions from countries such as Colombia, which were threatened with tariffs that would cripple their economies.

In the Dominican Republic, he oversaw a ceremony in which the U.S. formally confiscated a Venezuelan government plane seized last year. It was meant to show how the Trump administration is getting tough on the regime of President Nicolas Maduro.

Guatemala agreed to allow 40% more deportation flights from the U.S. and accept migrants of other nationalities in transit to their home nations.

And in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele offered Rubio a proposal to house convicted criminals of any nationality — including American citizens — in the nation’s prisons. That unprecedented, and perhaps unconstitutional, idea immediately drew condemnation from immigration experts and human rights activists, and praise from Trump and his MAGA movement.

At one point in the trip, Rubio condemned Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba as “enemies of humanity.”

“I do not know how else to describe those regimes. They are not just doing that to their own people, but these three regimes have contributed to the instability of the region,” he said.

That seemed straightforward enough, especially for a hawkish conservative Republican. Yet it also underscored some of the difficulties and turf clashes he will likely face back at the State Department.

Hours before Rubio left Washington, Trump’s envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, had flown to Venezuela to meet Maduro and gain the release of six Americans held there. He also secured a promise from Venezuela to accept deportations of its citizens.

That dissonance didn’t seem to faze the new secretary of State, but his future travels may not be as smooth.

While many countries in the region are dealing with security threats from transnational drug and crime groups that Trump last month designated as terrorists, Latin America has none of the “hot wars” that Rubio will be dealing with in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Rubio plans to visit Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates later this month.

Wherever he goes, he will have Trump and his advisers — particularly Grenell and Elon Musk watching from the wings.

“There’s a sort of reorganization of U.S. foreign policy which we’re witnessing now, and I think a lot of people are trying to make out what it is,” said Carl Meacham, a former senior staff member for Western Hemisphere on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “The thing that is interesting that a lot of folks are trying to figure out is — what’s the order of responsibilities? Who’s the president listening to?”