Edgar Lee
In February, 299 undocumented migrants of various nationalities deported from the U.S. were temporarily relocated to the Decápolis Hotel in Panama, with the migrants reporting that their phones and passports have been seized by government officials. Internet access has also been cut off from the hotel after migrants reported their conditions to the outside world, according to an anonymous Iranian resident of Panama who reports being in contact with a migrant in the hotel.
112 of those deported migrants were relocated to and are held in the San Vicente immigration camp in Panama’s Darien province after refusing to return to their country of origin, according to Panamanian authorities. Lawyers of the migrants are reportedly unable to communicate with their clients held at the camp or the hotel, and the Panamanian government is not approving their visitation requests.
Migrants in the hotel have been spotted writing “HELP US” on the windows and holding up a sign that reads “Please Help Us”, among other pleas for help.
The government of Panama stated that while the migrants are not being detained, they are under the watch of the police and are not allowed to leave the hotel.
Earlier in February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned the President of Panama José Raúl Mulino that the country will face potential retaliation from the U.S. if Chinese influence over the Panama Canal area isn’t reduced. Panama has become a “bridge” in the U.S.’s deportation process, where deported migrants are temporarily kept in Panama before being admitted into the U.S. or returned to their origin country.
This is not unique; the detention in Panama comes after El Salvador’s President offered to hold America’s deported migrants and imprisoned citizens in El Salvadorian prisons, and after an executive order was signed that converted Guantanamo Bay into a migrant holding center, bypassing due process rights of the migrants and being considered from enemy countries.
The lackey regimes of the Third World, particularly in Latin America, are acting as loyal servants to carry out the U.S.’s deportation policies, both under the threat of imperialist retaliation and the country-selling nature of bureaucrat-capitalists. The U.S. threat regarding “Chinese influence” is not out of interest of neutrality as they claim, but rather an inter-imperialist dispute, reflecting the struggle between the U.S. imperialist superpower and the Chinese social imperialists for domination over trade between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as Panama itself.
Photo: Image taken by migrants from inside the hotel they are being held in Panama.
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