By Simon Lewis, Julia Symmes Cobb and Humeyra Pamuk
BARRANQUILLA, Colombia, Sept 8 (Reuters) – The United States was hoping to wrap up “good, solid” trade deals in the foreseeable future with Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday, as he began a tour of the three Latin American countries whose leaders are closely aligned with President Donald Trump’s administration.
Washington is stepping up security engagement with the region on issues including migration and drug trafficking amid an effort to reassert U.S. influence across Latin America that has seen U.S. forces capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro during a raid on Caracas early this year and ramp up economic pressure on Communist-led Cuba.
Rubio, speaking to reporters in Florida before embarking on the trip, defended U.S. involvement in Venezuela’s oil sector, saying energy fields previously held by Chinese, Russian and Iranian companies could generate revenue for Venezuelans through partnership with the United States under a future democratically elected government.
Rubio later on Tuesday met right-wing Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella in the coastal city of Barranquilla.
He will travel later this week to Ecuador to meet President Daniel Noboa and then to Peru for talks with President Keiko Fujimori, who was inaugurated on July 28.
The visit comes at a moment of growing ideological alignment with all three nations, which Rubio said was part of a trend in the Western Hemisphere toward support for Washington’s goals.
“We have a lot of common interests with them, both taking on regional transnational criminal terrorism and also economic engagements. We’re hoping to wrap up good, solid trade deals with all three of these countries in the foreseeable future,” Rubio said ahead of the trip.
RUBIO MEETS ‘THE TIGER’
The discussions come as Colombia is seeking relief from U.S. tariffs of 12.5% that took effect in July, which officials have said could affect Colombian exports.
De La Espriella, an anti-establishment figure who refers to himself as “The Tiger,” was endorsed by Trump, and has asked the U.S. leader to suspend the tariff after a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the west of the country in August, just days after De La Espriella was sworn in.
Rubio said after their meeting that he had known De La Espriella for years before the Colombian leader entered politics and welcomed his leadership.
De La Espriella said the two men had discussed bilateral plans he termed the “Barranquilla Accords,” including economic revival and “bulletproofing the hemisphere.”
“Colombia wants to newly consolidate itself as the principal hemispheric partner for the United States on security,” De La Espriella said.
Colombia will need U.S. help with airplanes, radar, drones, helicopters, anti-money-laundering efforts and other security tools, he said.
He hopes the two countries will cooperate on what he called a new “Plan Homeland,” a reference to “Plan Colombia,” a joint program against drug trafficking that began in the late 1990s under which the U.S. provided billions of dollars to Colombia.
Colombia will fumigate plantations of coca, the base ingredient in cocaine, destroy cocaine laboratories and go after drug bosses, De La Espriella added.
His country is willing to meet annual targets in the fight against drug trafficking, he said, an apparent reference to Trump’s spats with De La Espriella’s leftist predecessor over cocaine production.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington and Julia Symmes Cobb in Bogota; additional reporting by Charlie Cordero in Barranquilla; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis and Cynthia Osterman)
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