MIAMI — Secretary of State Marco Rubio began a three-day tour of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru on Tuesday, September 8 — his first visit to Colombia and Peru since taking office, and his fourth trip to Latin America overall — in a swing that puts Washington’s evolving regional strategy on full display, built almost entirely around governments that share Trump’s ideological orientation.
Schedules
Rubio’s trip runs from September 8-10. He begins in Barranquilla, Colombia, meeting President Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office August 7. From there he travels to Quito to meet Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, before closing the tour in Lima with Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori, who assumed power July 28.
According to the State Department, the stated purposes of the trip are threefold: reviewing U.S. support for Colombia’s recovery from the devastating August 10 earthquake; deepening cooperation in what the administration calls the fight against “narcoterrorism”; and discussing the benefits of closer commercial ties between the U.S. and all three countries.
State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott confirmed the trip in a September 4 statement, describing it as an effort “to strengthen key U.S. partnerships in our region.”
All three stops carry specific significance. In Colombia, the visit follows directly from Colombia’s formal accession to the Coalición Contra los Cárteles de las Américas (A3C) — the U.S.-led anti-cartel coalition also known as the Shield of the Americas — and Washington’s earlier pledge of $1 billion in security assistance to De la Espriella’s government.
In Ecuador, Rubio and Noboa are expected to build on the counter-narcotics coalition the two governments have already established; this marks Rubio’s second visit to Ecuador, following a September 2025 trip.
In Peru, the visit is Rubio’s first engagement with Fujimori's government since her inauguration, and Peru’s own foreign minister has separately signaled interest in Peru eventually joining the same Shield of the Americas framework Colombia recently joined.