CNN
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Central America for his first trip as America’s top diplomat.
Rubio is expected to leave late next week for Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
The trip comes as President Donald Trump has made stemming migration to the United States a top priority and adopted a series of directives intended to crack down, including ordering thousands of additional troops to the southern border of the United States. Trump has also expressed interest in the United States regaining control of the Panama Canal.
Bruce said it was important to Rubio that Central America was his maiden trip as secretary of state, a trip that should send a signal to the United States and the world about the administration’s priorities.
The issue of migration, Bruce said, is a “compelling issue” that is also linked to “all the other issues that we face and that every other country faces, which is security and economic prosperity.”
“You want people to be able to live in their own country and be safe there, without having to flee to another,” she said, emphasizing the need to work together to solve certain problems.
“If we want to be safe, prosperous and healthy, we have to look at our neighbors and the world today, and that is certainly South and Central America,” Bruce added.
Tens of thousands of migrants from the three Northern Triangle countries Rubio plans to visit — Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras — attempt to reach the United States each year. However, according to Customs and Border Protection data, the number of border crossings with people from these three countries decreased in 2024.
Rubio will likely discuss the Darién Gap during his meetings in Panama. The perilous route between Central and South America has seen a surge in migrants and has become a barometer of expected migration to the United States. Last year, the U.S. and Panamanian governments signed an agreement aimed at curbing the passage of undocumented migrants on this route.
Rubio is also expected to discuss economic and supply chain issues, another major priority of the trip. It is unclear whether he plans to raise the issue of control of the Panama Canal. On Wednesday, Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino said everything Trump said about the Panama Canal was “wrong.”
“The Panama Canal belongs to the country of Panama,” he said. “It’s not a gift.”
CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.