Pompeo hits the road as impeachment trial gets started

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is heading to Europe and then Latin America this weekend, leaving Washington ahead of the Senate trial for President Donald Trump on impeachment charges, the State Department said Thursday.

Pompeo will leave on Saturday to attend an international conference in Germany on the conflict in Libya the next day that is being co-hosted by the United Nations. The meeting aims to bring together many of the countries that have interests in Libya's ongoing civil war, and hopes are high that the warring parties will hold to a cease-fire.

From Berlin, Pompeo will re-cross the Atlantic Ocean to visit Colombia, Costa Rica and Jamaica before returning to Washington after a stop in Florida, where he will deliver a speech on the Trump administration's foreign policy objectives.

In Bogota, Pompeo will meet with Colombian President Ivan Duque and attend a regional counterterrorism meeting. In San Jose, he will see Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado and visit a law enforcement facility. In Kingston, he will meet Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness along with other Caribbean leaders.

Pompeo will return to Washington on Jan. 23.