Last July 1, the government of José Raúl Mulino, as soon as he took office, signed a memorandum of understanding with Washington so that the US would pay for air operations for the return of undocumented migrants, but it did not contemplate the arrival of the deportees, the head of state announced in a surprising manner.

On the other hand, last December, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, citing international law, affirmed that Panama is not obliged to accept deportees of nationalities other than Panamanian.

For the newspaper La Prensa, two months later, the presence of migrants of various nationalities, especially Asian, locked up in the Decapolis hotel of this capital, asking for help, without an official pronouncement on the matter and on the legal framework supporting this measure, has put the Executive against the wall.

When questioned on the subject, the Minister of Security, Frank Ábrego, could only refer to the understanding agreement signed between Panama and the United States, which nobody knows its contents, while the President himself, in the midst of the visit in early February of the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, announced to the country that he was giving the Nicanor airstrip, in Metetí, Darién, for deportation operations.

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