By Simon Lewis and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) -When Marco Rubio arrives in Latin America this weekend on his first foreign trip as Donald Trump's secretary of state, he'll find a region reeling from the new administration's shock-and-awe approach to diplomacy.

Newly inaugurated U.S. President Donald Trump is pushing to "take back" the Panama Canal, the world's second busiest interoceanic waterway.

Stephanie: In response to Trump’s inauguration speech, Panama President José Raúl Mulino said that “ the canal is and will remain Panama’s .” As you noted, Trump has already floated the idea of using military force to retake the canal. Do you think this could actually come to pass?

In recent weeks, when he was President-elect Donald Trump publicly said that Panama should return the Panama Canal to the United States, and he would not rule out using military force to reclaim it. At his presidential Inauguration on Monday Trump doubled down on saying that his new administration was going to take back the canal.