On February 20, 2026, Chile’s minister of transportation and telecommunications, Juan Carlos Muñoz, received a notice from the U.S. State Department: his visa had been canceled. The revocation, along with those of two other officials, cited activities that “compromised critical telecommunications infrastructure and undermined regional security.” The move followed a $500-million proposal by China Mobile to build an undersea cable linking Valparaíso and Hong Kong. The U.S. action disrupted Muñoz’s work and damaged his professional standing, he later told the outlet.
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The demand for undersea cables has surged with the rise of artificial intelligence, as these networks carry most global data. Chile’s interest in the Chile-China Express cable was part of a broader effort to diversify connections beyond the U.S. Jorge Heine, a former Chilean diplomat, called the U.S. sanctions a “precedent” that “ventured into uncharted territory.” He emphasized that diversifying digital communication routes is key to avoiding outages from geopolitical or technical disruptions.
For decades, undersea cables were managed by a mix of telecom firms, governments, and content providers. But in recent years, U.S. tech giants like Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon have dominated the market, controlling much of the infrastructure. Chile, like many countries, now depends on these firms for global connectivity.
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U.S. opposition intensified after the Chilean government initially approved the China Mobile project. The U.S. Embassy in Santiago summoned ministry officials, and two days later, the proposal was rescinded, citing a “technical error.”
Pedro Huichalaf, a former Chilean telecommunications official, argued redundancy is key: “The goal should be to have a main and a secondary route to Asia in case one fails.” He highlighted the risks of overreliance on a single infrastructure provider.
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Geopolitical tensions, undersea cable breaks, and recent drone attacks on Amazon Web Services data centers have highlighted the fragility of global data networks. Governments are pushing to reduce dependence on a few major firms. For Chile, the China Mobile cable could offer a direct link to its largest trading partner, China. Heine, the former diplomat, noted that such a route could mirror the EllaLink cable, which Brazil and the EU built to bypass U.S. surveillance concerns after Edward Snowden’s revelations.