March 27, 2025
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday delivered a robust defense of the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Rubio said the administration was essentially forced to shut down USAID because of “insubordination” within its ranks by staffers who refused to comply with demands to justify its budget and its programs.
At USAID, almost all the agency’s workers overseas are being pulled off the job and out of the field under a sudden Trump administration order.
Rubio said the original intention was to keep the agency running while reviewing how money was being spent. But he said the government received no cooperation and employees were acting in “contravention” and “insubordination.”
“It is not the direction I wanted it. It’s not the way we wanted to do it initially, but it is the way we will have to do it now,” Rubio said. “What would be a gift to our geopolitical rivals is billions of dollars in foreign aid that is not aligned to the national interests in the foreign policy of the United States."
Immigration, a priority for the administration of President Donald Trump, has been the major focus of Rubio’s first foreign trip as America’s top diplomat, a five-country tour of Central America.
During Rubio's visit to Guatemala, the country's President Bernardo Arévalo said his country would accept migrants from other countries being deported from the United States.
Under the “safe third country” agreement announced by Arévalo, the deportees would then be returned to their home countries at U.S. expense.
“We have agreed to increase by 40% the number of flights of deportees both of our nationality as well as deportees from other nationalities," Arévalo said, speaking during a news conference with Rubio.
The Guatemalan president's offer came days after El Salvador Monday announced a similar but broader agreement.
