Secretary of State Marco Rubio is about to embark on his first diplomatic mission overseas since being confirmed to his put up, visiting 5 international locations in Central and South America over the primary week of February.
Through the journey, Rubio is anticipated to strengthen the Trump administration’s immigration priorities with leaders within the area, in accordance with a senior official, who stated the secretary can be planning to deal with Beijing’s affect throughout a number of of the stops.
The State Division can be billing Rubio’s journey as historic — saying his six-day journey to Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic marks the primary time a U.S. secretary of state has opted to make his or her first official go to to Latin America in over 100 years.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Indo-Pacific Quad ministers on the State Division in Washington, Jan. 21, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
“That is the place we dwell”
In an op-ed for the Wall Road Journal, Rubio stated the journey is a part of a realignment of American diplomatic priorities.
“For a lot of causes, U.S. overseas coverage has lengthy targeted on different areas whereas overlooking our personal. Consequently, we have let issues fester, missed alternatives and uncared for companions,” he stated. “That ends now.”
State Division spokeswoman Tammy Bruce stated the area’s proximity to the USA was an essential think about deciding on it for Rubio’s first journey.
“The very fact of the matter is, that is the place we dwell. That is who we’re,” she stated. “That is about not simply eager to have new partnerships — however that is all the time good — however the nature of what it means to have an prolonged relationship with the individuals closest to you.”
These relationships are important for fulfilling the Trump administration’s border safety and deportation plans, Rubio famous.
“Diplomacy’s position on this effort is central. We have to work with international locations of origin to halt and deter additional migrant flows, and to just accept the return of their residents current within the U.S. illegally,” he stated.
Cooperation and coercion
Nevertheless, the international locations on his itinerary have largely been very cooperative with the administration up to now, as different international locations within the area Rubio will skip over stay hesitant to conform.
Guatemala, as an example, has accepted a whole bunch of migrants delivered to the nation on navy planes since Trump took workplace, and the nation’s management has signaled it’s open to accepting deportees of different nationalities.
In the meantime, Mexico, which is historically the U.S.’ most essential associate in dealing with unlawful immigration, has been far more tentative.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum initially stated the nation would not settle for migrants from different international locations, however she quietly reversed course in late January when she revealed Mexico had accepted over 4,000 deportees and that whereas “the massive majority” was Mexican, others weren’t.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum speaks throughout a press convention on the Nationwide Palace in Mexico Metropolis, Jan. 31, 2025.
Sashenka Gutierrez/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Mexico has additionally up to now refused requests from the U.S. to permit navy flights carrying deportees to land within the nation, in accordance with officers from each international locations.
Honduras has posed one other problem to the administration’s agenda. In response to information from Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the finish of 2024, Hondurans made up the most important share of the inhabitants within the deportation pipeline. However forward of Trump’s inauguration, the president of Honduras threatened to expel members of the U.S. navy stationed within the nation in response to mass deportations of Honduran nationals.
Nevertheless, Honduran authorities have signaled the nation’s place could also be softening. The nation’s overseas minister wrote on X that the federal government is within the means of launching a program to assist returning migrants referred to as “Brother, Come House.”
The Trump administration has additionally had some early success in overtly pressuring international locations to acquiesce. His threatened commerce battle in opposition to Colombia prompted its authorities to permit navy deportation flights to land on its territory.
“It sends a message that this administration, President Trump, Secretary Rubio — they imply what they are saying,” stated Mauricio Claver-Carone, particular envoy for Latin America.
Claver-Carone additionally prompt the Trump administration would use gentler diplomatic ways as effectively, saying that in Rubio’s journey, he’ll try to put the groundwork for a program to repatriate migrants travelling by Central America with the federal government of Costa Rica.
He additionally addressed Richard Grenell’s go to to Venezuela to satisfy with strongman Nicolas Maduro on Friday.
“President Trump expects Nicolas Maduro to take again the entire Venezuelan criminals and gang members which were exported to United States and to take action unequivocally and with out situation,” he stated, including that Grenell, the envoy for particular missions, will even urge Maduro to launch American hostages held within the nation.
A “direct menace” from China
Past immigration, Claver-Carone stated Beijing’s rising affect in Central America will even be high of thoughts for Rubio by a lot of the journey, however it’s anticipated to take middle stage throughout the secretary’s first cease in Panama.
Trump has lodged a litany of complaints associated to Panama’s operation of the canal that cuts by the nation — claiming that American vessels are overcharged, lamenting that the U.S. ceded management of the important waterway within the first place and promising “we’re taking it again” throughout his inaugural tackle.
Rubio has taken a extra measured strategy in discussing the Panama Canal whereas additionally underscoring that what he says are Trump’s official considerations concerning the waterway — particularly in relation to firms managed by Beijing situated on every finish of it.
“If the federal government in China in a battle tells them to close down the Panama Canal, they should,” Rubio stated in an interview on Thursday. “That could be a direct menace.”
A cargo ship traverses the Agua Clara Locks of the Panama Canal in Colon, Panama, Sept. 2, 2024.
Matias Delacroix/AP
Rubio continued to say it’s a dynamic that can’t be allowed to proceed.
“It isn’t within the nationwide curiosity of the USA to have a canal we paid for and we constructed used as a leverage and a weapon in opposition to us. That may’t occur,” he stated.
However forward of Rubio’s go to, Panama President Jose Raul Mulino stated handing again management of the canal is not a thought he can entertain.
“It is inconceivable,” Mulino stated throughout a press convention on Thursday. “I can not negotiate, and far much less open, a means of negotiation over the canal. That is sealed. The canal belongs to Panama.”
