Immigration Watch International (2): Airport in Panama Could Be Used for Repatriation Flights

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Airport in Panama Could Be Used for Repatriation Flights

The Center’s Todd Bensman recently noted that the only sure way to reduce the flow of illegal aliens through eastern Panama’s treacherous Darien Gap is to fly them home.

That would require Panama to stop its participation in what is termed “controlled flow”. The idea dates back to 2015, whereby the governments of Panama and Costa Rica transport migrants who survive the perilous journey through the Darien Gap through their countries to the next closest to the United States. Panama arranges for the aliens to be bused to the Costa Rican border, then Costa Rica makes sure they get to the Nicaraguan border. This assistance merely encourages more illegal migration.

The answer to how to replace “controlled flow” of illegal immigrants with air repatriation lies in the small Panamanian town of Rio Hato: Scarlett Martinez International Airport.

In 1938, 64 miles beyond what was then the western edge of the Panama Canal Zone, the U.S. Army Air Force opened an air base in Rio Hato to support the defense of the canal. The base operated through 1948, when the United States returned it to the Republic of Panama, though it continued to serve as an auxiliary landing field until 1990 for Howard Air Force Base.

Prior to the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989, Rio Hato was nominally a Panamanian Air Force Base under the Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF). With the disbandment of the PDF in 1990 in favor of rigidly overseen national police, the base became home to the national police and other law enforcement agencies; there was little need to maintain the “military” airport at Rio Hato.

In 2011, in the aftermath of the great recession, then-President Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal’s modernization plans for Panama included expanding Tocumen International Airport – Panama’s primary one – to focus on business flights and those connecting elsewhere in the Americas, while renovating the airport at Rio Hato (renamed Scarlett Martinez International Airport) to accept commercial passenger air traffic, especially foreign tourists headed to the nearby Pacific beaches.

The problem is that while Martinelli built Scarlett Martinez, the tourists aren’t coming, at least not in any significant numbers. Currently, the airport is only serviced by four airlines; two Panamanian domestic carriers and two Canadian carriers, which only do so seasonally. As of the writing of this post, there have only been 37 arrivals in the past 30 days.

However, the lack of passengers at Rio Hato, its near equidistance between the Costa Rica-Panama border and where the Inter-American Highway terminates at the Darien, and its 8,038-foot runway make the airport a natural departure point for repatriation flights for the nearly 700 migrants per day who exit the jungle on the Panamanian side of the Darien Gap (and a hub for deportation flights from the United States that don’t occur aboard commercial airlines). Such flights are operated by contracted Boeing 737, 767, and 777s to countries around the world.

While Martinelli has declared his candidacy for a second (non-consecutive term) for president, Americans shouldn’t have to wait to see how the 2024 elections – in both countries – play out to pursue the use of Scarlett Martinez to deter migrants from coming from South America and beyond through Panama to our Southwest border.

https://cis.org/Celler/Airport-Panama-Could-Be-Used-Repatriation-Flights

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Background

Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.

Why is "La Raza" the one Spanish term that is NEVER translated in the American mass media? Because translating it would make it a lot less respectable. It means "THE RACE" -- The mixed Hispanic "race" of Mexico. Racism is fine South of the Rio Grande only, apparently.

The "line" of this blog is that immigration should be SELECTIVE. That means that:

1). A national government should be in control of it. The U.S. and U.K. governments are not but the Australian government has shown that the government of a prosperous Western country can be. Up until its loss of office in 2007, the conservative Howard government had all but eliminated illegal immigration. The present Leftist government has however restarted the flow of illegals by repealing many of the Howard government regulations.

2). Selectivity should be based on "the content of a man's character, not on the color of his skin", as MLK said. To expand that a little: Immigrants should only be accepted if they as individuals seem likely to make a positive net contribution to the country. Many "refugees" would fail that test: Muslims and Africans particularly. Educational level should usually be a pretty fair proxy for the individual's likely value to the receiving country. There will, of course, be exceptions but it is nonetheless unlikely that a person who has not successfully completed High School will make a net positive contribution to a modern Western society.

3). Immigrants should be neither barred NOR ACCEPTED solely because they are of some particular ethnic origin. Blacks are vastly more likely to be criminal than are whites or Chinese, for instance, but some whites and some Chinese are criminal. It is the criminality that should matter, not the race.

4). The above ideas are not particularly blue-sky. They roughly describe the policies of the country where I live -- Australia. I am critical of Australian policy only insofar as the "refugee" category for admission is concerned. All governments have tended to admit as refugees many undesirables. It seems to me that more should be required of them before refugees are admitted -- for instance a higher level of education or a business background.

5). Perhaps the most amusing assertion in the immigration debate is that high-income countries like the USA and Britain NEED illegal immigrants to do low-paid menial work. "Who will pick our crops?" (etc.) is the cry. How odd it is then that Australians get all the normal services of a modern economy WITHOUT illegal immigrants! Yes: Before the pandemic, you usually COULD buy a lettuce in Australia for a dollar or thereabouts. And Australia IS a major exporter of primary products.

6). I am a libertarian conservative so I reject the "open door" policy favoured by many libertarians and many Leftists. Both those groups tend to have a love of simplistic generalizations that fail to deal with the complexity of the real world. It seems to me that if a person has the right to say whom he/she will have living with him/her in his/her own house, so a nation has the right to admit to living among them only those individuals whom they choose.

I can be reached on jonjayray@hotmail.com -- or leave a comment on any post. Abusive comments will be deleted.

Immigration Watch International (2)

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Airport in Panama Could Be Used for Repatriation Flights

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