On Tuesday the State Department told Congress it is moving $52 million earmarked as foreign military financing away from four countries — Slovakia, North Macedonia, Tunisia and Iraq — and sending that money instead to Panama, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. The reshuffle lands just days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrapped up a three-nation tour of the region, and it captures, in one budget line, where Washington's military money is headed next.
The $52 Million, Explained
Foreign military financing, known as FMF, lets allied governments buy American-made weapons and equipment using U.S. taxpayer dollars rather than their own. State Department officials framed the shift as a way to fight narcoterrorism close to home while continuing to protect the Panama Canal, arguing that when it comes to American military aid, the Western Hemisphere has long ranked behind other parts of the world. In a thinly veiled shot at Beijing, the department said the goal was to stop rivals from gaining a strategic foothold in the hemisphere, language that lines up with President Trump's repeated talk of reviving a 21st-century version of the Monroe Doctrine. Notably, the cut does not zero out assistance to the four countries losing money; the department simply said the old funding split no longer matches current priorities, without saying how much Slovakia, North Macedonia, Tunisia and Iraq have left.
A Tour That Set the Table
The notice to Congress came days after Rubio's Sept. 8-10 swing through Barranquilla, Quito and Lima, a trip built around security pledges and new economic deals. In Barranquilla, which Colombia's government has used as a stand-in capital since a magnitude-7.4 earthquake killed more than 330 people on Aug. 10, Rubio met President Abelardo de la Espriella, sworn in Aug. 7 after years of leftist rule under Gustavo Petro. The two leaders unveiled what they're calling the Barranquilla Agreements, organized around three goals: rebuilding earthquake-hit areas, reviving the economy and shoring up hemispheric security. Alongside the announcement, the countries signed separate memoranda on critical minerals and rare earths and on civilian nuclear energy cooperation, and De la Espriella pitched Rubio on a homegrown defense overhaul he's calling "Plan Patriota Siglo XXI," aimed at modernizing Colombia's aircraft, radar systems, drones, air defenses and cyber capabilities with financing split between Bogotá and Washington.
Ecuador Gets a Fourth Terrorist Label — and a Bigger Fleet
A day later in Quito, Rubio met President Daniel Noboa and designated Los Tiguerones, a Guayaquil gang that splintered off Los Choneros, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist — the fourth Ecuadorian criminal group to get that label, after Los Choneros, Los Lobos and the Chone Killers. He also promised to ask Congress for $45 million in fresh security funding, plus a separate $10 million push against illegal mining, and confirmed delivery of a 110-foot Coast Guard cutter that rounds out a fleet of a dozen U.S.-donated vessels for Ecuador's navy by year's end. The payoff came quickly: on Sept. 10, Colombian police arrested Guido Fernando Rodríguez Vargas, known as "Comandante 7," in Soacha, just south of Bogotá. Authorities describe him as a key cross-border operator who ran Los Tiguerones' illicit finances between the two countries; he's wanted on an Interpol red notice for homicide and organized crime and now faces extradition to Ecuador.
Peru's Pivot Nobody Saw Coming
Peru produced the trip's biggest surprise. President Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former leader Alberto Fujimori and in office since July 28 after a campaign built almost entirely on public safety, used Rubio's Sept. 10 stop at Lima's Palacio de Gobierno to confirm Peru would join the Escudo de las Américas, Washington's regional coalition against organized crime. "We know how hard it is to face crime that doesn't respect borders," she said. Rubio, in turn, received Peru's Orden del Sol, a decoration dating back to the country's 1821 independence, from Foreign Minister Carlos Espá. Pressed on whether the U.S. might act unilaterally against criminal groups anywhere in the region, Rubio told reporters in Lima: "We're not going to do anything our partners don't ask us to do."
There's a resource story underneath the security one. Peru is the world's second-largest grower of coca leaf after Colombia, per United Nations figures, and ranks among the top cocaine producers globally according to the DEA; the government had already imposed a 60-day state of emergency in Lima and the port of Callao in late August over rising crime. But Washington's bigger worry is China, which passed the U.S. as Peru's top trading partner back in 2011 and now holds a stake in the $1.3 billion Chancay megaport that opened in 2024 — state carrier Cosco Shipping owns 60% of the terminal, with Peruvian miner Volcan holding the rest. Outside the Palacio de Gobierno that same afternoon, demonstrators held signs rejecting the Escudo de las Américas even as officials inside decorated Rubio.
Panama Skipped the Tour, Not the Payout
Panama never made Rubio's itinerary, but it's still getting a share of the $52 million, which the State Department frames as support for canal security. As of publication, Panama's government had issued no public statement on the new funding.
What Stays the Same
None of this eliminates military financing for Slovakia, North Macedonia, Tunisia or Iraq — Washington just hasn't said how much those four countries have left after the cut. It's the latest in a string of moves trimming money or troop levels in Europe, tied to Trump's ongoing complaint that NATO members, Slovakia and North Macedonia among them, aren't spending enough on their own defense.
