Washington opens direct talks with Myanmar's junta over scam centers targeting Americans

Getting Myanmar's help to shut scam hubs is a major focus of the US push, Reuters reported ^[1]. The available reporting does not describe any commitment from Myanmar on the hubs, and it does not report any compound closing. The one exchange it documents is a detention case ^[4][14].

Castillo once ran the American Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar. He was detained on June 11 at the airport in Yangon. His supporters describe the charges as trumped-up ^[13]. The Naypyitaw talks began 96 days later ^[23]. The US government has not commented on whether he was wrongfully detained ^[13]. Castillo declined to comment beyond crediting President Donald Trump for his release ^[15].

Official contact is what the generals want. Min Aung Hlaing, who has cited electoral fraud to justify the coup, is seeking international legitimacy for his nominally civilian government ^[19]. He remains under US sanctions for human rights abuses. Those include the 2016-2017 mass killings and expulsions of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, which Washington declared a genocide ^[7]. Since Washington reversed its post-2021 policy of isolating the generals, any effort to shut the scam operations with Myanmar's help goes through talks with him ^[2][4].

The official running the outreach is not who usually holds this job. Vance was confirmed as the State Department's top intelligence official in August ^[6]. Current and former officials say he has met players from all sides of Myanmar's conflict and helped shape the administration's policy ^[22]. Intelligence chiefs do not typically steer policy because of concerns about compromising analytic independence, Reuters reported ^[11]. "If you let policy dictate to intelligence, you can't be sure you're getting a real honest assessment of the facts," said Richard Betts, who has done consulting work for US intelligence agencies and holds an adjunct senior fellowship at the Council on Foreign Relations ^[12]. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott declined to address Vance's role. He said the administration "operates as a team with the president as the lead" ^[20].

According to the State Department, it talks with every group in Myanmar about matters that touch US interests, and it raises the need for violence to stop and for political prisoners to be freed ^[9]. "You don't solve problems by ignoring them. You solve problems by addressing them," Pigott said in a statement ^[10]. Five people said Vance has also met the democratic opposition and the ethnic armed groups fighting the military, both in person and virtually ^[18].

Almost all of this comes from unnamed sources, and the number of sources differs from claim to claim. Seven current and former officials described the scam-center focus and the possible rare-earth talks ^[3]. The Castillo aim and the Tokyo link each come from four people ^[4][16]. Myanmar's ask and the list of US agencies in Tokyo each rest on one person ^[14][16]. The only on-record material is the State Department statement and Castillo's brief comment ^[9][15]. A spokesperson for the military-backed government did not respond to a request for comment ^[21]. It was unclear who represented Myanmar in Tokyo ^[17].