By U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio
This week, I will travel to Barranquilla, Quito, and Lima to highlight a clear, actionable commitment on behalf of President Donald Trump and the American people: the United States delivers. We are partnering directly with Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru to build real security, facilitate economic growth, and ensure that our region’s future remains in the sovereign control of each country.
We deliver on security because narcoterrorist organizations do not only traffic drugs but they also fuel mass illegal immigration and human trafficking, corrupt public institutions, recruit children, destroy families, and drive out honest investment. Together our governments work shoulder-to-shoulder with law enforcement to defeat the criminal cartels that have plagued our hemisphere.
Ending illegal migration has already deprived them of tens of billions of dollars a year; our cooperation on eradicating drug trafficking will further limit their resources to commit evil.
We deliver on prosperity because economic development creates the conditions for lasting security, disincentivizes participation in the illicit economies run by criminal networks, and allows for mutual benefit between our nations.
For too long, foreign state-backed extra-hemispheric actors—specifically from China—have entered our hemisphere with promises that mask their predatory practices. Their involvement too often comes in the form of opaque contracts, unsustainable debt burdens, worker exploitation, and environmental destruction. When critical national assets fall under another nation’s ownership or control, countries lose their sacred right to determine their own destiny and face grave threats to their national sovereignty, data privacy, and economic independence.
The United States offers a clear, transparent alternative. U.S. companies and business leaders invest directly in your national economy, develop your local workforce, and support the communities that surround them.
Colombia: Tangible Investments and Renewed Security
Together, the Trump and De la Espriella Administrations are reinvigorating the 200-year-old U.S.-Colombia friendship to restore it to its rightful place as the lynchpin of security and economic cooperation in our region.
Rather than offering vague promises, our economic engagement focuses on direct investments that improve daily life and create formal employment for the Colombian people. Through our upcoming Bilateral Prosperity Dialogue, we are mobilizing U.S. private sector investment into Colombia’s energy, logistics, and transportation infrastructure. American companies operating in Colombia are actively expanding high-paying jobs, offering a clear economic alternative to the informal and illicit economies that criminal networks exploit, and helping Colombia face the challenges posed by El Niño.
We pair these economic tools directly with security support. U.S. assistance, including training, equipment, and operational support, helps Colombian authorities consolidate territorial control in areas historically dominated by the narcoterrorist groups that terrorize communities in Colombia, the United States, and throughout our region.
The United States shows up because that is what real partners do. Following the devastating August 10 earthquake in Colombia, the Trump Administration immediately delivered more than $27 million in emergency assistance.
Furthermore, Colombia’s new posture on border security and stopping illegal immigration serves as a model for regional cooperation. The partnerships now taking shape in Ecuador and Peru build on a model Colombia has spent two decades helping prove can work.
Ecuador: Direct Action Against Cartels and Economic Growth
In Ecuador, I will meet with President Daniel Noboa to advance our joint campaign against transnational organized crime. President Noboa confronts criminal organizations that once operated as though they were untouchable. They are not.
Following the Trump Administration’s formal designation of Ecuadorian gangs Los Lobos, Los Choneros, and the Chone Killers as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) last year, we have unlocked critical intelligence, law enforcement, and military coordination through the Shield of the Americas and the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition.
We are also modernizing our bilateral extradition treaty with Ecuador so that fugitive criminals face swift, inescapable justice.
As security improves, U.S. commercial activity expands. Leading American technology firms, including Google, Palantir, and SpaceX, are establishing operations and digital infrastructure in Ecuador. These investments bring high-speed connectivity, secure data analytics, and technological jobs to Ecuadorian workers without compromising state security or user privacy.
Peru: Two Centuries of Strategic Economic Collaboration
In Peru, we look forward to working with the new Fujimori government to bring our 200 years of shared history into the future. We’re synchronizing efforts to secure our hemisphere against transnational and regional threats by welcoming Peru, now a Major non-NATO ally, into the Shield of the Americas.
Our economic partnership with Peru is built on high-value, transparent investments in key strategic sectors. Following the signing of our Critical Minerals Memorandum of Understanding in February 2026, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) committed $5 million directly into Peru’s mining sector, generating tax revenue and local employment in Peru.
Where Chinese Communist Party-backed projects challenge Peru’s legal frameworks and threaten data security and transparency, the United States’ private sector is delivering open, market-driven investments that preserve Peruvian ownership and protect our hemisphere’s security interests.
A Hemisphere That Delivers
Every nation in our region has the sovereign right to select its partners. We ask only that the choice be made in daylight, with the full terms visible to the public.
Where that has not happened, the pattern is clear: foreign state-owned enterprises acquire control over strategic infrastructure, leaving debt, surveillance, worker exploitation, and compromised sovereignty behind.
The American offer is fundamentally different. It is transparent, reliable, and mutually beneficial. Trusted technology. Clear, enforceable contracts. Private sector investments that build local capacity, create real jobs, and respect national independence.
