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Colombia is primed to play a pioneering role in the Trump
administration's "Back to the Americas" initiative, Mauricio
Claver-Carone, U.S. President Donald Trump's senior adviser on
Latin America, told Reuters in an interview.
He said the plans also include a rural development project worth
billions of dollars to be funded in part by private investors,
but gave no further details.
The announcements come amid rising tensions between the United
States and China over human rights, Hong Kong, security and the
coronavirus pandemic, which has triggered the worst recession in
Latin America since the 1950s.
They will be made during a visit to the region by U.S. National
Security Adviser Robert O'Brien, Admiral Craig Faller, commander
of U.S. Southern Command, Adam Boehler, chief executive officer
of the U.S. International Development Finance Corp (DFC), and
himself, Claver-Carone said.
The White House National Security Council first announced the
trip on Twitter earlier Thursday, but gave no details. The
officials will also visit Panama.
Claver-Carone cited strong private sector interest in the "Back
to the Americas" program, which will offer as yet undefined
financial incentives to U.S. companies to move production
facilities back to the region from Asia.
"There's huge corporate will and we want to take advantage of
that," he said.
Colombia's ambassador to the United States, Francisco Santos, in
April said his country was in talks with several U.S. companies
interested in moving facilities there.
Claver-Carone said security issues would also play a key role
during the visit to Colombia, which shares a long border with
Venezuela, whose socialist leader Nicolas Maduro has been
blacklisted by Washington.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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