By Juan Manuel Aguilar Antonio

Central America’s digital transformation has advanced faster than the capacity of states to govern it strategically. In this context, technology has been adopted based on technical and market-driven criteria, without sovereign planning to anticipate its implications for security, data, and state autonomy. This gap has allowed global technology actors to assume a structural role before solid regulatory frameworks are in place.

In this scenario, Huawei emerges as a key actor not only because of its technological capabilities, but also due to its geopolitical dimension. Its expansion in the region has gone beyond the commercial sphere, embedding itself across multiple layers of digital infrastructure, from telecommunications to education, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. This makes its presence a long-term strategic variable for Central American countries.

As rivalry between China and the United States intensifies, technology has become a matter of national security. However, in Central America this debate arrived late—once dependencies were already consolidated. Today, states face the challenge of regaining decision-making capacity in an environment where digital sovereignty has become a central component of power and governance.