Beijing have provided more than a hun-
dred and fifty billion dollars in loan
commitments to the region—some years,
more than the World Bank and the
Inter-American Development Bank
combined. In less than two decades,
trade between China and Latin Amer-
ica has increased twenty-seven-fold.
Feeley said that he tried to alert Wash-
ington to China’s encroachment, but
the new Administration was clearly un-
interested in the region. “You don’t beat
something with nothing, and right now
I got nothing,” he said.
In late 2016, Feeley became concerned
that Panamanian oicials were negoti-
ating with their Chinese counterparts to
withdraw diplomatic recognition from
Taiwan, a longtime antagonist of China.
“We suspected that they were playing
footsie, but they never let on,” he said. “I
asked President Varela then, and again
in February, 2017. He denied anything,
and I reported it home. I rang bells all
over Washington and got nothing there,
either.” In June of last year, Panama’s gov-
ernment declared that it would no lon-
ger recognize Taiwan. Feeley found out
an hour before the announcement; he
had called Varela to discuss Martinelli’s
case, and the President blurted out the
China decision. Feeley subsequently
learned that the Chinese and the Pana-
manians had hidden their discussions by
meeting secretly in Madrid and Beijing.
The Taiwanese government furiously
denounced Panama for succumbing to
“checkbook diplomacy,” but Panama-
nian oicials denied that the decision
was motivated by economics. Then, last
November, Varela travelled to Beijing
and joined President Xi Jinping in a cer-
emony to celebrate their new friendship,
at which he signed nineteen separate
trade deals. At around the same time,
the China Harbour Engineering Com-
pany began work in Panama on a hun-
dred-and-sixty-five-million-dollar port.
“The fact is, it makes sense for Pan-
ama to recognize China, just as we do,”
Feeley said. “The Chinese efect in com-
mercial relations is going to grow expo-
nentially. Its presence here is real, and it
has the means and the will.” Panama
could well become China’s Latin-Amer-
ican hub; the One Belt, One Road ini-
tiative, working with Varela’s govern-
ment, is planning to build a railway from
Panama City to near the Costa Rican
border. But, Feeley added, “the Panama-
nians are naïve about the Chinese.” He
told me that he had worked to persuade
Panama’s security ministry not to sign a
communications-technology deal with
the Chinese, partly out of concern that
they would use the infrastructure for es-
pionage, as they have elsewhere. The
Chinese company Huawei, which has
headquarters in Panama, lobbied hard
“to delay, divert, and get the contract.”In the end, the work was contracted to
an American firm, General Dynamics,
but the negotiations were diicult.
In a more prosaic illustration of soft
power, Feeley noted that a welcome party
for the new Chinese Ambassador had
drawn an unusually illustrious crowd.
“The President, who never used to go
to these things, went to pay homage,”
he complained. Varela’s government has
quietly leased the Chinese a huge build-
ing plot, on the strip of land that juts
into the ocean at the mouth of the canal,
to use as the site of a new Embassy. Sail-
ors on every ship in the canal will see
the proof of China’s rising power, as they
enter a waterway that once symbolized
the global influence of the United States.I
n public appearances, Feeley devised
a way to explain away Trump’s
ofenses: “Well, the President’s words
speak for themselves.” But, he said, “as
time went on, I thought to myself, Dude,
there’s only so long you can skate along
with that.” After the rally in Charlottes-
ville, Virginia, when Trump refused to
condemn violence by white suprema-
cists, Feeley reflected on a story that his
grandfather Frank used to tell. On his
way home from the war, he had been
joined by a fellow New York City fire-
fighter, an African-American man named
Willy Brown. Assigned to a troop ship,
the two had shown up to their bunk
room, where they were faced by white
men who told them, “Niggers aren’t al-
lowed here.” There was a standof, and
violence was averted only when Willy
said, “Frank, don’t worry—I know where
to go.” Afterward, the men warned
Frank, “You better sleep with one eye
open, nigger lover.” For two weeks, Frank
avoided the bunk room, spending his
days playing craps on deck. “I didn’t get
much sleep,” he liked to say, “but I won
enough money to buy myself a DeSoto
when I got home.”
Feeley said, “My granddad wasn’t a
civil-rights activist—more informed by
his Catholic faith. But he was very much
a pro-civil-rights guy. I know it sounds
hokey, but, after Charlottesville, I thought
about how people really had to fight
hard to protect those kinds of values,
and how we’ve made so much progress
and yet we know more has to be made—
so for God’s sakes don’t fucking throw
the thing in reverse.”••