He Was Arrested in Panama in 1988. Upon Returning 36 Years Later, Its President Welcomed Him Into the Palace.

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The last time Mike Gonzalez was in Panama, he was arrested. Upon returning 36 years later, he was welcomed into Panama’s presidential palace to meet with President José Raúl Mulino.

As Gonzalez will attest, much has changed in Panama since 1988.

“Panama is now a free place that elects its own government. Back then, it wasn’t,” Gonzalez, who today serves as a senior fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, told The Daily Signal.

Gonzalez traveled to Panama with a delegation from The Heritage Foundation led by Heritage President Kevin Roberts. The delegation met with Mulino, who took office last July 1, and Panamanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Javier Martínez-Acha to discuss U.S.-Panama relations and the threat China poses to the region.

Standing in the historic section of Panama City with birds noisily chirping in the background, Gonzalez recounted arriving in Panama at the age of 27 as an eager reporter. Panama was his first foreign assignment for Agence France-Presse, often referred to as AFP.

Manuel Antonio Noriega was ruling Panama at the time, and Gonzalez, whose family is originally from Cuba, says he noticed the “pro-government groups were using communist slogans, which were carbon copies of the Cuban Revolution.”

“I started writing about that,” Gonzalez said, but only had the chance to write about it once before he was detained by authorities and expelled from the country the next day.

“They arrested me, insulted me, put me in a police van, and took me to some kind of judge who sat and said, ‘You’re expelled from Panama, you’re going to prison.’ And I spent the night in prison,” Gonzalez recounted.

Noriega became the military dictator of Panama in the early 1980s, using his power to enrich himself and eliminate his enemies.

“Noriega wanted to stay in power forever,” Gonzalez said. “He wanted to become a Marxist dictator. He started out as a common drug smuggler, and then he realized that going the Marxist way was his ticket.”

The dictator was wanted by the U.S. government on racketeering and drug trafficking charges. In December 1989, under President George H.W. Bush, the U.S. invaded Panama, forcing Noriega from power.

Today, Mulino is leading Panama as its elected leader and “has an opportunity to do the right thing by his country and by the United States—make sure that the canal does not fall into the direct or indirect hands of China, the People’s Republic of China, which is to say the Chinese Communist Party,” Gonzalez said.

President Donald Trump and Mulino have had indirect public disagreement over China’s influence on the Panama Canal.

During his inauguration speech on Jan. 20, Trump said, “China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.”

Mulino denies China is operating the canal and says ownership of the Panama Canal is not open for negotiation.

Panama established diplomatic ties with China in 2017, and the following year, Panama announced China Communications Construction Co. Ltd. and China Harbour Engineering Co. Ltd. had won a bid to construct a fourth bridge over the Panama Canal.

In February, the BBC reported that the China Railway Tunnel Group Co. is building an extension to the Panama City Metro under the south side of the canal.

While China does not control the canal, China’s investments in the region remain a concern to U.S. national security.

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