Andrew Sage

When Trump was first assuming office this time, there was a brief moment when they were talking about returning to colonizing Panama.

If you can cast your mind that far back.

He has flooded the zone quite successfully, but I do recall that.

Yeah, I'd been in Panama two months before that.

And I think the United States, a large portion of the population either doesn't know or has forgotten that like independence from American sort of neocolonialism is integral to Panamanian identity.

Like, I don't think they'd realized quite how unwilling to accept going back to that Panamanian people were.

Yeah.

It was a long struggle.

Yes.

To, you know, eke out independence.

I mean, even now there's, you know, US neoclinalism is alive and well in Panama in many ways.

Yeah.

But what gains they have gained is, you know, something they're not willing to lose.

Yeah, absolutely.

The United States deports people through Panama.

The Biden administration sent its Secretary of Homeland Security to the inauguration of a Panamanian president.

The U.S.

funds Panamanian deportations did under the Biden administration, including of people who have no criminal record.

We have effectively externalized our border regime.

to Panama in the way that we've also done to the Dominican Republic and Haiti, right?