Rubio goes to Caribbean to assert US interests after Venezuela strikes, Iran threats
WASHINGTON– Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to the Caribbean country of St. Kitts and Nevis this week to reaffirm the Trump administration’s interests in the Western Hemisphere, just one month after the U.S. military operation that removed then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power.
With the world focused on the U.S. military buildup in the Middle East and President Donald Trump’s threats to attack Iran, Rubio will make a day-long visit to St. Kitts on Wednesday to participate in a summit of Caribbean community leaders, the State Department said.
Rubio has long championed a greater U.S. role in the Western Hemisphere and aims to keep it the center of attention, even as Trump’s Republican administration has now shifted its top foreign policy priority to Iran, around which U.S. forces are now gathering in even greater numbers than in the lead-up to the Jan. 3 operation in Venezuela that captured and deposed Maduro.
Maduro was accused in a US court of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States and has pleaded not guilty.
Trump’s action against Maduro, coupled with an increasingly aggressive posture aimed at stamping out drug trafficking and illegal immigration, has proven a concern for many in the region, although it has also won support from some smaller states.
Trump, Rubio and others have likened the administration’s strategy for the Western Hemisphere to the Monroe Doctrine, with its rejection of outside influences and assertion of U.S. primacy everywhere in what they consider “America’s backyard.”
Trump has said his ouster of Maduro, military strikes against suspected drug-smuggling ships in the Caribbean, seizures of sanctioned oil tankers and tightened embargo against Cuba are key parts of a Trump corollary to 19th-century policies he calls the “Donroe Doctrine.”
In numerous group and bilateral meetings at the CARICOM meeting, Rubio intends to discuss ways to promote regional security and stability, trade and economic growth, the State Department said in a statement Monday.
“During his visit, the Secretary will reaffirm the United States’ commitment to working with CARICOM member states to strengthen stability and prosperity in our hemisphere,” the statement said.
