CNN —
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Central America for his first trip as the top US diplomat.
Rubio is expected to depart late next week for Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.
The trip comes as President Donald Trump has made stemming migration to the United States a top priority and has enacted a slew of directives meant to crack down, including ordering thousands more troops to the US southern border. Trump has also expressed interest in the US taking back control of the Panama Canal.
Bruce said it was important to Rubio that Central America be his inaugural trip as secretary of state, one that should send a signal to the US and the world of the administration’s priorities.
The issue of migration, Bruce said, is an “imperative one” that is also connected to “every other issue that we’re facing, and that every other country faces, which is safety, economic prosperity.”
“You want people to be able to live in their own country and be safe there, and not have to flee to another one,” she said, noting the need to work together to solve some issues.
“If we’re going to be safe and prosperous and in good shape, we have to have an interest in our neighbors and in today’s world, it’s certainly, it’s South and Central America,” Bruce added.
Tens of thousands of migrants from the three Northern Triangle countries that Rubio plans to visit – Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras – attempt to travel into the US each year. However, according to Customs and Border Protection data, the number of border encounters with people from these three countries dropped in 2024.
Rubio is likely to discuss the Darién Gap in his meetings in Panama. The treacherous route between Central and South America has seen an uptick of migrants and has become a barometer of expected migration to the US. Last year, the US and Panamanian governments signed an agreement aiming to curb the passage of undocumented migrants on this route.
Rubio also is expected to discuss economic and supply chain issues as another top priority of the trip. It is unclear whether he plans to raise the matter of control of the Panama Canal. On Wednesday, Panama’s president José Raúl Mulino said that everything that Trump has said about the Panama Canal is “false.”
“The Panama Canal is of Panama’s country,” he said. “It is not a gift.”
CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.