Star Metro - Rubio sees Guatemala leader keen to please US

Rubio is touring Latin America on his first trip which has been overshadowed by jaw-dropping actions in Washington by President Donald Trump, including dismantling the US Agency for International Development (USAID), of which Rubio is now nominally the head.

A former senator, Rubio is a Cuban-American and fierce opponent of Latin American leftists who has quickly sought in his new role to bolster US relationships with the region's conservatives.

An exception is Guatemala, where President Bernardo Arevalo is no ideological soulmate but has been eager to avoid friction with the new Trump administration.

Arevalo welcomed Rubio to dinner Tuesday in Guatemala City's old town and will hold further talks with him on Wednesday.

A sociologist and former diplomat born in exile after a US-backed 1954 coup, Arevalo is the son of a former president and pulled off a surprise victory in 2023 on a platform of reform and rooting out corruption in one of the region's poorest countries.

Arevalo immediately faced pushback from Guatemala's entrenched conservative elite which sought to prevent him from taking office.

Right-wing parties made allegations of electoral fraud, without providing evidence, and found support in Washington from elements of Trump's "Stop the Steal" movement that refused to acknowledge his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden.

Since Trump's political comeback, Arevalo has sought to avoid battles and has cooperated on the new US administration's push to expel millions of migrants.

Guatemala quickly accepted a military flight with deported citizens, shackled and flown in a military plane, unlike Colombia whose leftist leader pleaded for better treatment but backed down after Trump threatened massive retaliation.

Arevalo's administration "frankly in two weeks has turned out to be an extraordinary ally particularly in helping us deal with migration issues," said Mauricio Claver-Carone, the US special envoy on Latin America.

Guatemala also appeals to the Trump administration as it is the most populous country that still recognizes Taiwan, the self-governing democracy claimed by China.

Rubio on a stop the day earlier to Costa Rica -- which switched recognition to China in 2007 -- vowed to support Latin American nations as they push back on China's influence.

China has wooed countries with major infrastructure projects in return for recognition, although Costa Rica has also faced economic retaliation after excluding Chinese telecom titan Huawei from consideration for its 5G network.

- Deportation, not aid -

Guatemala is one of the largest sources of migration to the United States after decades of poverty, violence and political instability.

The United States under previous administrations sought to address the root causes of migration through on-the-ground support.

USAID, whose officers around the world are being sent home by Trump, ran some $178 million in projects in Guatemala in 2023.

Around 700,000 Guatemalans are estimated to live in the United States without documentation, and many more legally.

Another source of migration is El Salvador, whose popular President Nayib Bukele has avidly courted the Trump administration.

Meeting Rubio on Monday, Bukele made the extraordinary offer to take prisoners from the United States including US citizens, an outsourcing of the prison system that has no recent historic precedent for a democratic country.

Bukele has succeeded in reducing crime through an unapologetic mass incarceration, which rights groups say has frequently included authorities without warrants rounding up innocent people.

Rubio late Wednesday will head to the Dominican Republic, whose president, Luis Abinader, has championed a Trump-style hard line on chronically unstable and impoverished Haiti, including by starting work on a wall and ramping up deportations.

The United States under Biden funded a multinational security force aimed at stabilizing Haiti, with Kenya taking the lead.

The United Nations said Tuesday that the Trump administration was cutting off aid to the Haiti effort.

L.Mitchell--SMC