WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Marco Rubio heads Saturday to Panama 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.

Rubio’s travel comes after Panamanian police on Friday fired tear gas and clashed with protesters angered by Trump’s threat.

The demonstrators, who included university students and teachers, burned an effigy and photos of Trump — who accuses China of unfair influence over the interoceanic waterway — and Rubio.

The protesters “categorically reject the United States’ attempts to turn Panama into a protectorate and a colony again,” said teachers’ union leader Diogenes Sanchez.

“We are going to fight to defend our national sovereignty,” he added.

“I think the president’s been pretty clear he wants to administer the canal again. Obviously, the Panamanians are not big fans of that idea,” Rubio told SiriusXM radio in an interview before the trip.

“We cannot allow any foreign power — particularly China -– to hold that kind of potential control over it that they do. That just can’t continue,” he said.

The canal remains the crucial link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and coasts, with 40 percent of US container traffic going through it.

Trump administration officials said they were blaming not Mulino but previous Panamanian president Juan Carlos Varela who in 2017 — during Trump’s first term as president — moved to sever ties with Taiwan in favor of China.

Trump has refused to rule out military force to seize the Panama Canal, which the US handed over at the end of 1999, saying that China has exerted too much control through its investment in surrounding ports.

In his inaugural address, Trump said that the US will be “taking it back” — and he refused to back down Friday.

“They’ve already offered to do many things,” Trump said of Panama, “but we think it’s appropriate that we take it back.”