(CHILE) — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced visa restrictions on February 20, 2026, targeting three Chilean government officials over their involvement in a proposed undersea cable project with Chinese firms.
Rubio’s move bars the officials and their immediate families from entering the US and revokes any existing visas, in an unusually pointed step in a dispute that links Chile’s infrastructure choices to Washington’s security concerns.
Chile’s Transport and Telecommunications Minister Juan Carlos Muñoz was among the three officials targeted, putting a member of Chile’s cabinet at the center of a measure that the US framed as a response to decisions with regional consequences.
The State Department cited activities that “knowingly directed, authorized, funded, provided significant support to, and/or carried out activities that compromised critical telecommunications infrastructure and undermined regional security in our hemisphere”.
Rubio’s February 20 press statement emphasized the US commitment to countering threats to regional security posed by projects of this kind, as the Trump administration widens its pushback against China’s role in sensitive infrastructure.
Even the framing of the episode carried a message, with the public narrative around the decision casting the targeted officials as a test case for Washington’s willingness to impose personal consequences over strategic assets.
The restrictions focus on a small, identified group rather than Chilean travelers broadly, signaling a targeted diplomatic action aimed at decision-makers tied to one project, not a general travel crackdown.
In practical terms, the measure means the named officials cannot travel to the US, and any US visas they already hold are no longer valid, with the same coverage extending to their immediate family members.
Visa revocation typically cuts off the ability to use an existing visa for entry, while a finding of ineligibility generally blocks the issuance of a new visa, tightening options even for routine official or personal travel.
By designing the policy around specific people and families, Washington used travel access as leverage without imposing blanket restrictions on Chile’s public, a common way to raise pressure while limiting wider spillover.
At the center of the dispute sits an undersea cable proposal involving Chinese firms, a category of infrastructure that governments increasingly treat as strategic because it can shape how data moves and where risks concentrate.
Undersea cables carry large volumes of communications, and policy debates often treat their routing, ownership, and operation as questions of resilience and security, not just commercial engineering.
US concerns about Chinese infrastructure investments in Latin America drove the action, with Washington viewing such investments as a security threat amid intensifying US-China competition.
Chile faces that pressure in a particularly exposed way because China is its largest trading partner and the US is its top foreign investor, placing Santiago between two powers that are openly contesting influence.
The visa restrictions also landed at a sensitive political moment inside Chile, with an incoming right-wing government under José Antonio Kast set to take power two weeks after the announcement.
Analysts described the timing as calibrated to signal that infrastructure decisions signal geopolitical alignment, a message that lands not only on the outgoing administration but also on those about to take office.
Outgoing President Gabriel Boric criticized the move, adding a domestic political edge to a dispute that Washington presented as a regional security matter.
Chile’s balancing act between China and the US has long carried economic weight through trade and investment, but Rubio’s action showed how quickly that balance can turn into a diplomatic confrontation over specific projects.
By tying the sanctions to an undersea cable, Washington cast telecommunications infrastructure as part of regional security, framing choices about partners and financing as decisions with strategic consequences.
Rubio’s approach fits into broader Trump administration efforts that also included Rubio’s March 2025 actions on immigration and foreign aid realignments, though the Chile measures focus specifically on countering China.
Targeted visa restrictions give Washington a tool that sits below broader economic penalties, allowing the US to send a signal, apply pressure, and attempt deterrence by focusing costs on identifiable officials.
The choice to name a cabinet minister underscores the message, because it threatens the ability of senior figures to travel for diplomacy, business, or personal reasons, while also raising political stakes at home.
For Chile, the action raises the risk of diplomatic friction at a moment of government transition, with the outgoing leadership criticizing Washington’s move and the incoming administration preparing to set its own tone.
The US, meanwhile, positioned the decision as part of a wider contest over the security implications of Chinese-linked projects, treating infrastructure participation as inseparable from strategic competition.
That approach reflects Washington’s view of Latin America as part of its traditional sphere, a point that has sharpened as China’s economic ties across the region have expanded and as US-China competition has intensified.
In that context, the undersea cable becomes more than a technical project, serving as a proxy for alignment choices that can shape trust, intelligence concerns, and the broader security debate.
The restrictions also highlight how quickly connectivity projects can become entangled with diplomacy, especially when they involve firms from a country the US describes as a strategic competitor.
Rubio framed the action as countering threats to regional security, casting the project as the type of activity that could “compromised critical telecommunications infrastructure” and, in Washington’s telling, “undermined regional security in our hemisphere”.
Chile’s next steps will unfold under the shadow of a policy that targets individuals rather than institutions, turning personal travel and family access into instruments of statecraft.
For other governments in the region, the episode signals that Washington will scrutinize foreign investment in strategic assets and may treat partner selection in telecommunications infrastructure as a security statement.
The immediate diplomatic stakes now center on whether Chile reassesses infrastructure partners and how its incoming government manages engagement with the US and China while facing pressure framed in security terms.
Marco Rubio Blocks Visas as Donroe Pushes Undersea Cable Deal with China
The US has imposed visa bans on three Chilean officials involved in a Chinese-backed undersea cable project, citing regional security concerns. This targeted diplomatic action aims to deter Chinese investment in Latin American telecommunications. The timing is significant, as it pressures Chile’s incoming administration to align with Washington’s security standards while the outgoing President Gabriel Boric criticizes the move as an overreach in a period of transition.
