INSANE: What ecuador and peru are really getting from rubios visit | Rare Historical Photos

A tour built on three new governments

Marco Rubio lands in Lima on Thursday for his first meeting with a Peruvian government as secretary of state, closing out a three-day sweep through South America that began Tuesday in Barranquilla and continued Wednesday in Quito. The through-line, according to the State Department, is reinforcing partnerships with governments Washington views as newly sympathetic: Colombia's Abelardo de la Espriella has held the presidency only since August 7, Peru's Keiko Fujimori since July 28, and Ecuador's Daniel Noboa is hosting Rubio for a second sit-down in barely over twelve months.

Barranquilla: minerals, nuclear cooperation and a $1 billion pledge

The trip's opening stop wasn't in Bogotá — Rubio's motorcade rolled into the Batallón Paraíso military complex, located in the Caribbean coastal city of Barranquilla, which has become the new government's alternate seat of power, for the sit-down with De la Espriella. The two men signed cooperation agreements covering critical-mineral investment and civilian nuclear energy, and Washington committed roughly $1 billion in security assistance tied to Colombia's new membership in a U.S.-driven anti-cartel coalition. Reconstruction aid also featured heavily: an August 10 earthquake struck western Colombia, and U.S. support for the recovery was one of three pillars the State Department listed ahead of the trip. Asked about a possible pause in U.S. tariffs on Colombian goods, Rubio kept the door open without committing to specifics, telling reporters simply that the administration was "working on it."

Quito: an old security partnership looking for a commercial upgrade

Rubio's Wednesday stop in Quito revisited ground he covered almost exactly a year earlier. During his September 2025 visit, he designated the criminal networks Los Choneros and Los Lobos as foreign terrorist organizations and pledged roughly $19.5 million in combined security and drone funding for Ecuador's navy — figures that El Comercio puts at $13.5 million for anti-crime programs plus $6 million for unmanned aerial systems. That visit also floated a stronger U.S. military footprint on Ecuadorian soil, an idea voters later rejected in a referendum on foreign military bases, even as day-to-day security cooperation kept expanding. This time, the meeting with Noboa was scheduled for 12:10 p.m. at the presidential palace, with Rubio and Foreign Minister Roberto Kury briefing reporters roughly an hour later. Speaking before the stop, Rubio called Ecuador one of Washington's closest regional security partners and suggested the relationship still has room to grow economically: "I think we can do more with them on the economic front."

Lima: a fresh start, with El Niño on the agenda

Peru is the one government on the itinerary Rubio has never dealt with directly as secretary of state, and Thursday's 10:15 a.m. sit-down at the Government Palace — with Fujimori's full cabinet in the room — marks the first high-level contact between Washington and her administration. Peru's presidency has framed the meeting as a chance to deepen the strategic alliance between the two countries, with security, organized crime, defense, investment and trade all on the table. One item is unusual for a meeting of this kind: coordinating the response to this year's El Niño weather pattern, which has already prompted Fujimori to personally oversee the shipment of 25 modular steel bridges to vulnerable coastal areas. U.S. Ambassador Bernie Navarro had teased the visit days earlier on social media, telling followers to expect "excellent news for our cooperation."

The regional framing Washington won't spell out

Officials and analysts covering the tour have tied it to what the Trump administration calls the Donroe Doctrine, a hemispheric posture aimed at pushing back non-regional influence and dismantling transnational criminal networks. None of the three governments' statements mention Venezuela, even though U.S. military involvement there has intensified since a January raid removed former president Nicolás Maduro from power and put him in front of a U.S. courtroom on narcotics counts. Whether that shadow comes up in private conversations in Quito or Lima has not been confirmed by either government.

What is clear heading into Thursday's meeting is that Washington wants each of these newly aligned governments to translate political goodwill into something measurable — dollar figures, signed agreements, timelines. So far, only Colombia has produced a number large enough to make headlines.