Rubio heads to Ecuador, Colombia and Peru after right-wing victories in the region

Marco Rubio is travelling to three South American countries whose newly elected leaders have aligned closely with Donald Trump’s administration, underscoring Washington’s effort to build influence across a region shifting to the right.

Rubio is due to visit Colombia on Tuesday to meet President Abelardo de la Espriella. He will then travel to Ecuador for talks with President Daniel Noboa, followed by Peru, where he is scheduled to meet newly elected leader Keiko Fujimori.

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US support for Colombia’s earthquake response; enhanced cooperation in the shared fight against narcoterrorism, which threatens our hemisphere; and the benefits of deeper commercial relationships between our countries

The State Department has not released a detailed agenda. It said Rubio will discuss US support for Colombia’s earthquake response, closer cooperation in the shared fight against “narcoterrorism” and the benefits of deeper commercial relationships between the countries.

The three leaders are part of a broader group of Trump-aligned figures who have recently taken power in Latin America. Trump also backed Honduran President Nasry Asfura, who won the presidency in November, and Bolivia’s Rodrigo Paz, who won in October. He has maintained close ties with Argentina’s Javier Milei and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele.

The visit comes as the Trump administration pledges to assert greater control over the Western Hemisphere under what Trump calls the “Donroe Doctrine,” a reference to the Monroe Doctrine. Washington has also adopted a more militaristic approach to regional security, reframing anti-drug operations as a war against “narco-terrorists.”

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Donroe Doctrine

In August, de la Espriella joined the administration’s “Shield of the Americas,” whose 19 members pledged a “commitment to using lethal military force to destroy the sinister cartels and terrorist networks.” He has praised US military strikes on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Rights groups say at least 227 people have been killed in those strikes and condemn them as extrajudicial killings, while relatives say the targets were fishermen rather than drug smugglers.

The United States has also supported de la Espriella after a devastating earthquake in Colombia last month killed at least 330 people and left thousands homeless.

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commitment to using lethal military force to destroy the sinister cartels and terrorist networks