Rubio Deepens Regional Security Cooperation With Colombia in Latin American Tour

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Colombia’s new president on Tuesday that Washington would rebuild and deepen security cooperation, as criminal networks that operate in Colombia also harm the United States.

Rubio is currently on a tour of three Latin American countries whose leaders are closely ‌aligned with the Trump administration.

Colombian lawyer and political outsider Abelardo de la Espriella won the presidential election in June and took office on Aug. 7.

At ​their meeting in the coastal city of Barranquilla on Tuesday, Espriella said that Colombia wants to become a security partner with the United States to ensure regional stability.

Espriella pitched what he called the 21st Century Patriot Plan to aid in the struggle against drug terrorism that would involve the update of Colombian airplanes, drones, radars, helicopters, anti-drone systems, aerial defense, mobility, intelligence, cyber defense, and special forces.

A country cannot progress without security, Rubio said, adding that the threats Colombia is facing are the same threats faced in the United States.

The two countries also signed their first memorandum of understanding (MOU) in securing supply chains in the mining and processing of critical minerals and rare earths as well as a second MOU concerning strategic civil nuclear cooperation.

Referring to countries across the Western Hemisphere where voters have ousted socialist governments in recent elections, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week, “I think we have a generational opportunity in the Western Hemisphere.”

He praised changes in countries across the Western Hemisphere in recent years, including Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, and Ecuador.

Espriella’s predecessor, former Colombian President Gustavo Petro, frequently clashed with President Donald Trump, including when he said Trump was interfering in Colombian elections after the U.S. president had endorsed Espriella.

Rubio will also ​travel later this week to Ecuador to meet President Daniel Noboa and then to Peru for talks ​with President Keiko Fujimori, who was inaugurated on July 28.

Noboa—whose father, Álvaro Noboa, unsuccessfully ran for president five times—is heir to one of Ecuador’s biggest business fortunes, based on banana plantations.

Fujimori is the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, a Japanese Peruvian politician who served as president of Peru from 1990 to 2000.