The people and the waterway at the center of the Panama Canal

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (4th-L) talks to Panama Canal Authority Administrator Ricaurte Vasquez (L) during a tour at the Miraflores locks of the Panama Canal in Panama City on February 2, 2025. Rubio arrived on the eve on his debut trip abroad as US secretary of state, as he looks for how to follow up on President Donald Trump’s extraordinary threat to seize the Panama Canal. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP) (Photo by MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)