The U.S. Department of State announced on Friday a package of $340.3 million in investments for the Caribbean and Central America, allocated for digital connectivity, health, and security, during the U.S.-Caribbean Dialogue held on Thursday in Washington, presided over by Under Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
The meeting solidified the commitment that Secretary Marco Rubio had made to the heads of government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) during their meeting in February in Saint Kitts and Nevis, and gathered high-level delegations from 15 countries: Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The largest item in the package is the Submarine Cable Program for the Caribbean and Central America, funded with 175.8 million dollars to expand high-speed connectivity with reliable providers and make the networks more resilient against interruptions.
This initiative expands and formalizes with concrete funding a previous proposal launched in August, when Washington was already urging regional governments to exclude unreliable providers—implicitly referring to Chinese companies—from their telecommunications ecosystems.
In terms of health, the State Department announced $61.5 million through the ASPIRE program (Americas Strategic Alliance for Independent Regional Health Excellence), subject to Congressional approval, aimed at helping Caribbean governments build self-sufficient health workforces through “ethical and transparent hiring, with fair wages that reach workers directly.”
The geopolitical dimension of ASPIRE is evident: by financing Caribbean healthcare self-sufficiency with direct salaries for professionals, it aims to reduce the region's dependence on foreign medical missions.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights documented in April 2026 salary withholdings ranging from 60% to 97.5% in Cuban medical missions active in the region, which Rubio himself has described as "forced labor."
In the realm of security, funds are channeled through the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI). A total of 37 million is allocated to protect critical digital infrastructure, ports, and to combat illegal unreported fishing, with an additional 66 million aimed at strengthening the capacity of Caribbean partners against transnational criminal organizations: 55 million in assistance for narcotics control and law enforcement, and 11 million in military financing.
The dialogue sessions addressed energy security, economic growth, critical infrastructure, reliable technology, disaster response, and "the fight against narcoterrorists and transnational criminal organizations," according to the official statement.
Aside from the formal sessions, Caribbean delegations met with U.S. business leaders during a business luncheon and an evening reception to explore projects in energy, critical minerals, ports, and digital infrastructure.
Cuba is not listed among the participating countries in the dialogue nor as a beneficiary of any of the announced programs.
The State Department also confirmed the hosting of a Caribbean Investment Summit in early 2027 to connect businesses, funders, and U.S. government agencies with Caribbean partners, along with a CBSI Security Ministerial in the spring of the same year, in coordination with Caribbean security ministers and CARICOM's IMPACS agency.
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