This is CBS Eye on the World. Here's John Batchelor.

The New World Report, I welcome Professor Evan Ellis of the U.S. Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, to guide us through Central and South America

in this moment of turbulence worldwide.

The decisions about tariffs profoundly affect Central and South America, but at the same time,

there are moving stories that are independent of the tumult, and those moving stories begin with Panama.

I note that the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Hegeseth, visits to Panama, follows a series

of attention-getting visits by U.S. officials.

Chiefly, I'm thinking of the Secretary of State, Mr. Rubio,

whose first voyage overseas as the confirmed secretary was to Panama City to sit with

President Molino. I welcome the professor to bring us up to date, but also to set the terms

of what apparently is a global dispute between

Washington, Beijing, Hong Kong, Panama City, and history. Professor, a very good evening to you.

The general case made over these many weeks is that Panama is vital to the defense of the

Americas in addition to supplying in the event of catastrophe our allies in the Pacific. The specific point is that Panama is a sovereign state, and yet there is no disputing the fact that the U.S. built the Panama Canal,

that the U.S. business in the Panama Canal is a profound part of Panama's success,

and that China has had influence in Panama these last years that is untoward and suspicious,

at least from the point of view of Washington,

and especially about the question whether China can interfere in any fashion in the canal going

forward that would disrupt the ability of the U.S. to respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

I'm developing here a theory that would fire up a paperback novel you're reading on a long

airplane flight, but I hear it routinely about a Chinese attack on Taiwan and how the

canal would be linked to the ability of the U.S. to respond.

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