US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke up about changing the perception US foreign policy treats its enemies better than its friends during his visit on 4 February in Costa Rica. Speaking at the conclusion of the meeting, Costa Rica President Rodrigo Chaves announced new agreements would strengthen that country’s fight against international organized crime, with waivers to the freeze of aid in that area for Costa Rica. Chaves said the issues of cyber security was discussed.
US Secretary of State Rubio would say during the same presentation: “I am here today – we’ve issued a waiver today – because in Costa Rica we have a trusted partner and an ally who has proven that they have taken aid from the United States and used it to fix a problem, to help us, to do it in a way that actually helps the United States. They’re stopping drugs. They’re stopping criminals. They’re identifying terrorists. This is foreign aid that furthers the national interest.”
During his stopover in Costa Rica as part of a tour of Central America and the Caribbean, Rubio spoke of reaching several agreements around illegal immigration. He stated: “And one of my priorities is to ensure that the US foreign policy shows – sends a signal that it’s better to be a friend than an enemy; it’s better to be an ally than a troublemaker. And unfortunately, this has not been the case in the past – in several administrations in the past. And this is a complaint that I heard time after time – with my time in the Senate – that sometimes it’s better to be the United States enemy than friend. Because if you are your friend, you’re overlooked and ignored, and even criticized. But if you are an enemy, they want to come up with some arrangement, negotiate. And we cannot have a foreign policy that rewards those who want to harm us and ignore those who cooperate with us. This is going to change under President Trump’s Administration, and I hope that today’s visit is the initial signal to say that President Trump will be a friend to their allies and will work together with your allies, especially when it’s a country like this that we take as an example, as a model that we would like other countries around the world to follow.”
During his presentation he explained that foreign aid has been frozen to review the programs.
“The waiver process exists so that we can review those programs. Today, here, we’ve issued waivers for programs that make all the sense in the world. They make America safer. They make America stronger because the programs we’ve issued a waiver for are helping our trusted partners intercept and stop drugs and terrorists from coming into the United States.
“But I issued a blanket waiver that said if this is lifesaving programs, okay – if it’s providing food or medicine or anything that is saving lives and is immediate and urgent, you’re not included in the freeze. I don’t know how much more clear we can be than that”, he said, speaking in San José, Costa Rica.
Rubio stressed: “What is in place is “a 90-day freeze through which it allows us now to review programs. Before we did the freeze we couldn’t find out anything about some of these programs, and USAID in particular they refused to tell us anything. We won’t tell you what the money is going to, where the money is for, who has it, which contractor it’s been – in some cases it goes through four different contractors before it reaches the intended recipient. These are not my numbers. These are USAID’s number.”
In explaining the decision to freeze the programs, he added:
“In some cases, with USAID, 10, 12, 13 percent, maybe less of the money was actually reaching the recipient and the rest was going into the overhead and the bureaucracy. This isn’t my money. This is taxpayer money. So, we’re not going to eliminate foreign aid. We’re going to have foreign aid that makes sense. We’re going to have foreign aid that works. We’re going to have foreign aid that furthers the national interest. We’re going to have foreign aid that benefits our trusted partners and our allies.”
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US Embassy in Costa Rica
Spectrum News
5 February 2025