Growing up in Miami amongst Cuban exiles who fled Fidel Castro’s revolution, Sen. Marco Rubio developed a deep hatred of communism. Now as President-elect Donald Trump’s selection for America’s prime diplomat, he’s set to deliver that very same ideological ammunition to reshaping U.S. coverage in Latin America.
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As the primary Latino secretary of state, Rubio is predicted to commit appreciable consideration to what has lengthy been disparagingly known as Washington’s yard.
The highest Republican on the Senate Choose Committee on Intelligence and a longtime member of the International Relations Committee, he’s leveraged his data and unmatched private relationships to drive U.S. coverage within the area for years.
For many years for the reason that finish of the Chilly Conflict, Latin America has pale from the U.S. overseas coverage agenda whilst U.S. adversaries like Russia, Iran and particularly China have made deep inroads. If confirmed, the Florida Republican is prone to finish the neglect.
However Rubio’s popularity as a nationwide safety hawk, embrace of Trump’s plan for mass deportation of migrants and knack for polarizing rhetoric is prone to alienate even some U.S. allies within the area unwilling to fall in keeping with the incoming President’s America First overseas coverage.
“Usually, Latin America coverage is left to junior officers,” mentioned Christopher Sabatini, a analysis fellow at Chatham Home in London. “However Rubio’s reflexes are firmly centered on the area. He’ll be paying consideration, and governments are going to must be extra cooperative of their bigger relationship with the U.S. in the event that they wish to draw shut.”
Rubio, via a Senate spokeswoman, declined to remark about his overseas coverage objectives.
However his views on Latin America are well-known and distinction sharply with the Biden administration’s desire for multilateral diplomacy and dialogue with U.S. critics.
Taking cues from his boss, Rubio’s foremost focus within the area is prone to be Mexico, on commerce, drug trafficking and migration. As soon as a sponsor of bipartisan reforms permitting undocumented migrants a path to citizenship, Rubio reworked himself throughout Trump’s first administration right into a loyal supporter of his requires elevated border safety and mass deportation.
Rubio has mentioned little about Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took workplace final month. However he was a fierce critic of her predecessor, Andres Manuel López Obrador, who in 2022 defiantly skipped the U.S.-organized Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles for a gathering of leftist leaders in Cuba.
Rubio accused López Obrador of capitulating to drug cartels and serving as an “apologist for tyranny” in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. The Mexican President responded by calling Rubio a “racist.”
Regardless of the snub, the Mexican President was welcomed by President Joe Biden to the White Home three weeks later as a “buddy” and “associate.”
“That gained’t occur beneath Rubio,” mentioned Sabatini. “He retains shut tabs on who’s following his coverage preferences.”
Rubio, 53, has lengthy had Trump’s ear on Latin America—and hasn’t hesitated to make use of that entry to advertise his hard-line agenda. He’s been one of the outspoken critics of Russian and Chinese language financial, political and army outreach within the area, and is predicted to punish international locations who cozy as much as America’s geopolitical rivals, or those that fail to help Israel.
When Trump canceled what would have been his first presidential go to to Latin America in 2018, Rubio was there to fill the void, sitting for conferences and picture ops on the Summit of the Americas in Peru with regional leaders from Argentina, Haiti and elsewhere.
“There’s no one within the U.S. Senate who comes near having his affinity and depth of information on Latin America,” mentioned Carlos Trujillo, Rubio’s shut buddy and former U.S. ambassador to the Group of American States. “Not solely does he have private relationships with dozens of officers, a few of them for many years, however he has vetted nearly each U.S. ambassador deployed to the area. It’s a big benefit.”
Amongst these desperate to work with Rubio is Argentine President Javier Milei, whose combative model, assaults on establishments and transformation from TV character to far-right chief have drawn comparisons with Trump.
One other ally is El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, whose crackdown on gang violence that when drove hundreds of thousands of Salvadoran migrants to the U.S. has drawn reward from Rubio.
Rubio hasn’t hesitated to make use of his energy to bully leftist leaders he sees as harming U.S. nationwide safety pursuits. Even democratically elected moderates have been targets. Earlier this yr, he slammed Chilean President Gabriel Boric, a critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, for allegedly offering secure haven for Hezbollah financiers, calling him “one of many main anti-Israel voices in Latin America.”
In 2023, he referred to as Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla group, a “harmful” selection to steer a rustic that has been the longtime U.S. associate within the warfare on medicine.
However it’s on Venezuela that Rubio has left his greatest mark.
Inside weeks of Trump taking workplace in January 2017, Rubio introduced the spouse of distinguished Venezuelan dissident Leopoldo Lopez to the White Home. The Oval Workplace go to, marked by a photograph of a grinning Trump and Rubio flanking the then jailed activist’s spouse, instantly thrust Venezuela to the highest of the U.S. overseas coverage agenda, in a break from earlier U.S. administrations efforts to maintain a distance from the nation’s troubles.
Over the following two years, Trump slapped crushing oil sanctions on Venezuela, charged quite a few officers with corruption and commenced speaking of a “army possibility” to take away President Nicolás Maduro. In 2019, on the top of Rubio’s affect, the U.S. acknowledged Nationwide Meeting President Juan Guaidó because the nation’s professional chief.
However the combative stance—common amongst exiles in South Florida—got here to hang-out Trump, who later acknowledged he had overestimated the opposition. By strengthening Maduro’s hand, it additionally paved the best way for deeper Russian, Chinese language and Iranian pursuits within the nation, all of the whereas aggravating a humanitarian disaster that led hundreds of thousands to uproot, with many migrating to the U.S.
Michael Shifter, the previous president of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, believes Trump might show extra forgiving of Maduro this time, even with Rubio heading the State Division, and proceed the trail of engagement and sanctions aid pursued by the Biden administration.
“Trump might start to deal with Maduro as he usually treats different strongmen around the globe, and cater a bit much less to the Cuban-American exile neighborhood in Florida,” Shifter mentioned.
Trujillo mentioned Rubio’s popularity for candor will serve him nicely negotiating with America’s associates and foes alike, even when he has to mood his sometimes-heated rhetoric.
“He’s going to be enjoying a distinct function now, however he’s an distinctive negotiator and I’ve little question he’ll rise to the event,” Trujillo mentioned.
With Trump’s collection of one other vocal Maduro critic, Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida, as his nationwide safety adviser, Trujillo mentioned the Venezuelan chief and his authoritarian allies in Cuba and Nicaragua must be anxious.
To this point, officers in Venezuela and Cuba, who routinely criticize the U.S. on social media, haven’t commented on Rubio’s nomination and have remained largely muted on Trump’s victory.
“There is a chance to barter nevertheless it should be in good religion,” Trujillo mentioned. “In the event that they don’t, there can be penalties.”
—Goodman reported from Miami. Mark Stevenson and Maria Verza in Mexico Metropolis and Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires contributed to this report.
