Rubio opens Latin America tour in Colombia with bid to rebuild security ties

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that he hoped security cooperation with Colombia would recover under the country’s newly inaugurated far-right president, Abelardo De La Espriella. The visit opened a Latin American tour focused on governments closely aligned with President Donald Trump’s administration.

Washington is expanding security cooperation across the region on issues such as migration and drug trafficking as it seeks to reinforce US influence in Latin America.

During Trump’s second term, the US military has carried out deadly strikes in the Caribbean against small vessels accused of drug trafficking, detained Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in an armed raid and imposed a severe fuel blockade on Cuba.

At a meeting in the coastal city of Barranquilla, De La Espriella said he and Rubio discussed cooperation against drug trafficking, stronger economic relations and a larger Colombian role in what he described as “bulletproofing the hemisphere.” He also said Colombia would support the United States on matters involving neighboring Venezuela.

“Colombia wants to newly consolidate itself as the principal hemispheric partner for the United States on security,” said De La Espriella, who took office on August 7.

Rubio said the Pentagon and Colombia’s security forces were considering new areas of cooperation and reviewing Bogotá’s equipment requests. He blamed strained relations in recent years on De La Espriella’s left-wing predecessor, Gustavo Petro, who frequently clashed with Trump.

Rubio said Washington wanted to restore that cooperation and potentially expand it. “And I think you have a president here now that is very interested in making that happen,” he said.

De La Espriella said Colombia was seeking US assistance, including aircraft, drones, radar systems, anti-money-laundering support and other security resources for its campaign against drug-trafficking organizations.

Rubio agreed that Colombia needed additional equipment, intelligence and training but did not say what the United States planned to provide.

Rubio praised De La Espriella as “a man of strength” and joked that he had known the Colombian leader long before he “lost his mind and went into politics.”

He said it was unusual to visit a country and meet its head of state after knowing the person personally for many years before he entered politics.

Rubio was scheduled to travel to Ecuador later in the week to meet President Daniel Noboa before heading to Peru for talks with President Keiko Fujimori, who was inaugurated on July 28.

The tour reflects growing ideological alignment between Washington and the three South American nations, a trend Rubio welcomed as broader regional support for US objectives.

“I think it’s part of a trend that you’re seeing in the Western Hemisphere of alignment with the US and US interests,” he said.

Trade talks and earthquake recovery

Before leaving the United States on Tuesday, Rubio said he hoped to finalize trade agreements with Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in the near future.

Colombia is seeking relief from US tariffs of 12.5 percent, which took effect in July and could weigh on Colombian exports.

De La Espriella, a millionaire former criminal defense lawyer and businessman who calls himself “The Tiger,” was endorsed by Trump. After a powerful magnitude-7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia in August, De La Espriella asked the US president to suspend the tariffs.

On Tuesday, De La Espriella said he hoped to work with Washington on a new “Plan Homeland,” a reference to Plan Colombia, the joint anti-drug program launched in the late 1990s with billions of dollars in US support.

Colombia would fumigate coca plantations, destroy cocaine laboratories and pursue drug lords, he added.

He said the country was prepared to meet annual targets in its fight against drug trafficking, a point that appeared to address Trump’s disputes with his left-wing predecessor over cocaine production.

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