U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio received Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha on Tuesday at the U.S. Department of State headquarters in Washington. The meeting, in addition to addressing bilateral issues, was marked by the situation in Venezuela following the capture of Nicolás Maduro. Rubio expressed his deep gratitude for Panama's solid collaboration over the past year, highlighting the close cooperation that has advanced shared priorities in the region, according to Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott. The head of U.S. diplomacy praised the measures taken by Panama to protect critical infrastructure and “expressed his interest in greater cooperation in ongoing regional efforts to promote stability in Venezuela,” Pigott reported. Rubio and Martínez-Acha also discussed opportunities to deepen collaboration on mutual interests between the United States and Panama, “including our cooperation on security to combat common threats such as drug trafficking and transnational crime,” the State Department's communiqué stated. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino has celebrated the capture of Maduro on January 3 by U.S. forces in Caracas and called for this to lead to a democratic transition in Venezuela. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Panama is also maintaining “active and permanent diplomatic efforts” to secure the release of Panamanian citizen Olmedo Javier Núñez Peñalba, who has been detained in Venezuela since last June.
