Rubio to meet De la Espriella as U.S. and Colombia seek closer ties

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due to meet Colombia’s president-elect, Abelardo de la Espriella, in Barranquilla on Tuesday as Washington and Bogotá move to strengthen their bilateral relationship.

The visit, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. local time, marks the first trip to Colombia by a senior official from Donald Trump’s administration. It comes one month before De la Espriella’s inauguration, with counter-narcotics cooperation and bilateral trade at the center of the agenda.

The U.S. State Department said the two leaders would examine closer cooperation in the “joint fight against narcoterrorism.” Colombia recently joined the Coalition Against the Cartels of the Americas, known as A3C, a military and operational alliance promoted by the United States to combat drug trafficking and organized crime across Latin America and the Caribbean.

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in the joint fight against narcoterrorism

De la Espriella has authorized Washington to carry out joint counter-narcotics operations on Colombian soil, although no such operation has been publicly announced. The United States has also approved $1 billion in material assistance to strengthen security in Colombia.

Trade will be another focus. De la Espriella has proposed temporarily suspending U.S. tariffs on some Colombian products, currently set at 12.5%, to ease the effects of the earthquake. Washington has not changed the tariffs so far.

The officials will also discuss U.S. support for Colombia’s recovery after the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck the country’s western and central regions on August 10 and killed 331 people. Washington announced $26.5 million for the emergency response. Rubio is scheduled to continue his tour in Ecuador and Peru, where the United States also wants closer political ties with the governments of Daniel Noboa and Keiko Fujimori.

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closer trade relations