U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, embraces Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo after a news conference at the Culture Palace in Guatemala City on Feb. 5, 2025.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, embraces Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo after a news conference at the Culture Palace in Guatemala City on Feb. 5, 2025.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday U.S. plans to support Guatemala with new infrastructure projects and to sign waivers on foreign aid to strengthen the United States’ partnership with the Central American country.

Meanwhile, the two countries have reached a new migration arrangement under which Guatemala will accept 40% more deportation flights from the United States, including both Guatemalan nationals and individuals of other nationalities.

Speaking alongside Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo in a joint news conference, Rubio said he had signed “a letter of support” pledging full State Department cooperation on a partnership between Guatemala and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The initiative aims to “begin preliminary planning for the expansion” of “two new port facilities,” along with highway and railroad connections to position Guatemala as a regional trade hub and boost its economic opportunities.

“Today, I’ll be signing waivers on foreign aid that will continue that partnership, and hope to build on it,” Rubio told reporters.

He said U.S. foreign aid has contributed to the arrest and extradition of criminals, including members of transnational groups.

“Certain individuals” and “fugitives” can be extradited, and they are actually “strategic objectives” for both the U.S. and its allies, Rubio said while visiting a facility near the Guatemalan Air Force base, where deportation flights arrive.

According to the State Department, this initiative has led to the arrest of more than 1,400 criminal fugitives upon arrival in Guatemala City.

President Arévalo, after talks with Rubio, said the two countries will establish working groups to finalize the details and processes for increasing deportation flights from the United States.

“In this framework, we have agreed to increase by 40% the number of flights of deportees,” both of Guatemalan nationals and “deportees from other nationalities” for repatriation, said the president through a translator.

He clarified that the “safe third country” was not discussed in title or content, emphasizing that the new arrangement with the U.S. ensures safe and humane conditions for repatriation.

The United States repatriated nearly 70,000 Guatemalans in 2024.

“Along with the agreement on Monday in El Salvador, as well as the tightening of the migration accord and repatriation flights with Panama, the Trump administration is focused on choke points on the approach to the southern border. Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, and maintaining migration enforcement with Mexico will likely lead to a drastic reduction in migrants at the southern border,” Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA on Wednesday.