The US secretary of state visits Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in a bid to enhance cooperation with right-wing allies.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says President Donald Trump’s administration hopes to ink trade deals with Colombia, Peru and Ecuador soon, as Washington seeks greater ties with right-wing allies across Latin America.
Rubio met with Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella during a visit to Barranquilla on Tuesday, part of a three-nation trip aimed at consolidating relationships with allied governments and expanding US military involvement in the region.
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“We have a lot of common interest with them, both taking on regional transnational criminal terrorism and also economic engagements,” Rubio said of the three countries before departing. “It’s part of a trend that you’re seeing in the Western Hemisphere of alignment with US and US interests.”
In addition to Colombia, the US secretary of state is set to travel later this week to Ecuador and Peru to meet with their respective presidents, Daniel Noboa and Keiko Fujimori.
Before his departure to Colombia, Rubio explained that Washington was seeking “good, solid” trade deals in the near future with all three countries.
The diplomatic tour also comes as the Trump administration seeks to check China’s growing influence in Latin America.
China, for example, signed a free-trade agreement with Peru in 2009 and has since become the South American country’s top trading partner, beating the US.
The Trump administration has also pushed for greater control over the entire Western Hemisphere as part of a policy platform informally called the “Donroe Doctrine”.
Security has been the centrepiece of that effort. Since taking office for a second term, Trump has authorised lethal military actions in Venezuela, the eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which he touted as critical to combat drug trafficking.
De la Espriella took office in August, promising a return to a militarised approach towards crime and armed groups, in line with Trump’s priorities.
He has also pledged to pursue closer relations with the US, after clashes between Trump and former President Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first elected leftist leader.
“Colombia wants to re-establish itself as the United States’ primary partner in hemispheric security,” De la Espriella said after his meeting with Rubio, which included the signing of agreements on critical minerals and civil nuclear cooperation.
De la Espriella indicated he would seek US support for military operations, including through radar and drone technology.
A political newcomer with no prior experience in elected office, de la Espriella has been part of a wave of right-wing victories across Latin America in recent years.
The Trump administration has buttressed the electoral campaigns of the region’s conservative candidates by pledging financial and political support.
He has also invited them to join the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition (ACCC), or the “Shield of the Americas”, a regional security framework that emphasises US military involvement to combat drugs and crime.
Leftist presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda, a Petro ally, slammed Rubio’s visit to Colombia as an “act of surrendering strategic aspects of our sovereignty”, pointing to Tuesday’s mineral and energy deals.
Cepeda also criticised de la Espriella’s decision to loosen gun restrictions on the same day, a position that echoes Trump administration policy.
“Just how disastrous the ‘memoranda of understanding’ that Rubio and De la Espriella are set to sign must be, given that an equally disastrous decision — the authorisation to carry weapons — is being announced at the same time,” Cepeda wrote on social media.
De la Espriella has defended his decision, however, citing Colombia’s struggles with crime and its six-decade-long internal conflict.
“For years, law-abiding citizens faced restrictions while criminals continued to arm themselves illegally to the teeth. That has to change,” he said in a social media post.
Colombia has asked the Trump administration to lower tariffs imposed on the country in July.