Rubio, a longtime hawk on China, began his trip in Panama where he reported headway in his push to decrease China's influence around the crucial Panama Canal.
Like Panama, Costa Rica is a longstanding US partner that in recent years received a surge in Chinese investment.
Costa Rica in 2007 switched recognition to China from Taiwan, the self-governing democracy claimed by Beijing -- a turning point as other Latin American countries followed suit.
But US officials also see hope in the example of Costa Rica, whose relations with China have turned rockier in recent years over local concerns about Beijing.
President Rodrigo Chaves, who will meet Rubio, in 2023 effectively forbade Chinese titan Huawei from bidding for the 5G network due to Beijing's refusal to sign an international agreement on cybercrime.
"President Chaves has been a great leader in that country in regards to recognizing the threat that China poses," said Mauricio Claver-Carone, the US special envoy on Latin America.
Rubio is also expected to speak in Costa Rica about how to handle neighboring Nicaragua, where strongman Daniel Ortega and his wife last week were granted absolute powers through a constitutional change.
Rubio, a Cuban-American and the first Hispanic to be the top US diplomat, is a sworn foe of Latin American leftists, although former president Joe Biden also took a hard line against Ortega.
Rubio's five-nation trip is heavily focused on President Donald Trump's top priority of sending back undocumented migrants.
Costa Rica, one of the most stable and prosperous nations in Latin America, has long supported US efforts on migration.
On Monday, Rubio visited El Salvador and said he received an extraordinary offer by the country's iron-fisted president, Nayib Bukele, not only to take in migrants but to jail Americans if Trump wants to outsource American prisons.
Rubio will arrive later Tuesday in Guatemala, a key source of migration and also the most populous nation that still recognizes Taiwan.
Trump has described China as a major adversary and has imposed punishing tariffs in what he sees as a way to correct an imbalanced trading relationship between the world's two largest economies.
Panama lawsuit requests axing Hong Kong firm's canal concession
Panama City (AFP) Feb 4, 2025 -
Two Panamanian lawyers filed a complaint Monday to cancel the concession of a Hong Kong-based company for operating two ports on the Panama Canal, following US President Donald Trump's threats to seize the vital waterway.
A subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings -- owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing -- manages two of the canal's five ports, an arrangement in place since 1997 via a concession from the Panama government.
But Norman Castro, one of the lawyers in the case brought before the Supreme Court, told reporters the contract "violates what the constitution says in about 10 articles."
"After a detailed analysis of the contract... we decided that an action for unconstitutionality was the appropriate means" to challenge the concession, said Julio Macias, another lawyer behind the suit.
The complaint also accuses the Hong Kong subsidiary of not paying taxes and benefits due to a series of advantages that are allegedly against the law.
Panama Ports Company -- a CK Hutchison Holdings subsidiary -- currently manages the ports of Cristobal on the canal's Atlantic side and Balboa on the Pacific side.
That arrangement was automatically renewed in 2021 for another 25 years.
The case comes after Trump threatened to take back the canal -- built by the United States and handed to Panama in 1999 -- as he said China was effectively "operating" it.
But temperatures have lowered since Secretary of State Marco Rubio's recent visit to the Central American country, with Panama President Jose Raul Mulino announcing they will not renew participation in China's Belt and Road Initiative.
Following Trump's charges, Panama also announced an audit into the company.
CK Hutchison Holdings is one of Hong Kong's largest conglomerates, spanning finance, retail, infrastructure, telecoms and logistics.
Related Links
Global Trade News
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
