Rubio Fumbles His Way Through the Caribbean

Officially, the trip will be focused on “weaning” Caribbean countries off Venezuelan oil and combating illegal immigration

Photo by Alexas_Fotos on Unsplash

Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Jamaica, Guyana, and Suriname on Wednesday and Thursday in a short tour of three English-speaking Caribbean nations. During his first stop in Jamaica, Rubio met with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness and held bilateral meetings with the heads of state from Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, and Barbados.

The biggest topic was supposed to be Haiti’s security, which is increasingly becoming a major issue. But Rubio seemed caught off guard by the support for a country he wants to see fail more than any other: Cuba. For Rubio, Cuba was not on his agenda. But for the leaders of more than a dozen nations in the Caribbean, it was on theirs, and they made sure he heard about it.

The meetings were not meant to address issues regarding Cuba, however, Rubio angered many Caribbean Island leaders with comments about Cuban doctors working in various countries in the region. Carribean leaders took offense to his suggestion that they were participating in human trafficking. To add insult to injury, the Trump administration also recently threatened many of them with 25% tariffs if they buy Venezuelan oil – something many rely on.

In late February, Rubio announced a visa restriction policy targeting foreign government officials who participate in Cuba’s medical brigades. The policy referred to the agreements with Cuba as “forced labor” and “human trafficking,” alleging that any leaders that allow the medical brigades in their countries were complicit in indentured servitude. Many Caribbean leaders pushed back, saying they would rather lose their travel visas than comply with the U.S., arguing that jeopardizing their health systems’ cooperation with Cuba puts their citizens at risk.

Rubio and the State Department seemed prepared to minimize the surrounding issues created by recent policy decisions, like heavy-handed sanctions against Cuba, along with the comments vilifying world leaders for working with Cuban doctors. However, evidence shows that they played a role in discussions. This and questions about the Signalgate debacle are likely why Rubio held only two press conferences throughout the trip.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) held an emergency meeting in anticipation of Rubio’s visit with the group’s president, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, in Kingston. The CARICOM meeting reportedly covered discussions surrounding the accusations of human trafficking, threats of tariffs for buying Venezuelan oil, and the mass deportations of Caribbean nationals living in the U.S. It should be noted that the U.S. has previously accused CARICOM and all of its member nations of human trafficking for partnering with Cuba.

CARICOM is the oldest “integration movement” in the developing world. It is made up of twenty-one countries: fifteen member states and six associate members representing approximately sixteen million citizens, 60% under the age of 30. The CARICOM website identifies the group through the representation of various ethnic groups of “Indigenous Peoples, Africans, Indians, Europeans, Chinese, Portuguese, and Javanese” and that the community is “multi-lingual with English as the major language complemented by French and Dutch and variations of these, as well as African and Asian expressions.”

The State Department’s focus for Rubio seemed to be on the two oil-rich nations of Suriname and Guyana as officials discuss “energy security” in the Caribbean. It’s worth noting that Guyana has a tense border dispute with Venezuela over the Essequibo region. Trump’s Special Envoy for Latin America, Mauricio Claver-Carone, made the vast oil and gas reserves in the area the forefront of the conversation during a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday.

“Guyana is poised this year to become the largest per capita oil producer in the world, only – first two – is going to surpass Qatar and Kuwait,” said Claver-Carone. “This is a huge kind of like, a story, of the last five years. I mean, it’s probably one of the greatest stories of the last five years. It’s seen as some of the greatest offshore opportunities in the world.”

Claver-Carone, the mastermind behind the John Bolton-like maximum pressure policies toward Cuba and Venezuela during Trump’s first term, even highlighted Trinidad’s efforts to revitalize its natural gas industry through modernization efforts and how “deeply committed” the U.S. is to assisting with those efforts. He did not provide any details.

“And with Trinidad, which has been an energy leader in the region, obviously it is going through its own development as it seeks to revitalize its natural gas opportunities and is going through that modernization as some of the older fields and opportunities there dry up and they’re looking for the new ones,” said Claver-Carone. “There, along with a lot of the challenges posed with Venezuela, we’re deeply committed to working with Trinidad to figuring out how to re-energize that – those natural gas opportunities and ensure that its economy continues to move forward despite the challenges presented with Venezuela and otherwise.”

However, when pressed about the Cuban doctor's debacle created by Rubio and how much of a problem it became for Caribbean leaders, Claver-Carone was dismissive. Like previous officials over the last several decades, he did not offer any evidence of human trafficking and relied on the same suggestive narratives (precisely how Rubio angered regional leaders).

Notably, Claver-Carone referred to the Caribbean as the U.S.’s “third border” many times during the call.

“So in regards to Cuban doctors in the Caribbean, like I’ve also previewed and asked and believe and I’ve told Caribbean leaders, that it would be a huge missed opportunity – missed opportunity – that with the prevalence, the importance, the pre-eminence that the Secretary of State and the President are giving to the Caribbean, to this third border, to be – to literally waste the entire conversation and waste that attention on a discussion of Cuban doctors, which is something we should all agree to what we agree and don’t agree on,” Claver Carone said. “Right? None of us support human trafficking. We all support labor standards, et cetera. Like, that issue – if this – if they choose to overshadow this trip with the issue of Cuban doctors, it’ll be a lost opportunity.”

After Wednesday’s meeting with Holness, Rubio hosted one of only two press conferences of his entire trip. Most of the questions asked of Rubio centered around the Signalgate disaster, after high-ranking intelligence officials used the Signal app to discuss an attack on Yemen. However, when initially asked about Cuba, Rubio didn’t respond. But Holness was ready. He seemed to jump at the chance to take the question about Cuba. Holness held his ground.

“In terms of Cuban doctors in Jamaica, let us be clear, the Cuban doctors in Jamaica have been incredibly helpful to us,” Holness said. “Jamaica has a deficit in health personnel, primarily because many of our health personnel have migrated to other countries. We are, however, very careful not to exploit the Cuban doctors who are here. We ensure that they are treated within our labor laws and benefit like any other worker. So any characterization of the program by others certainly would not be applicable to Jamaica. We are ensuring that our program complies with all the international laws and standards to which we are a party to.”

Rubio was again asked about Cuba after Holness rebuked U.S. claims of human trafficking in the most diplomatic way possible, leaving Rubio in a position that required a response. And once faced with a world leader, he buckled. Rubio began to backtrack without naming any specific countries that have been formally accused of human trafficking. Like his counterparts so often do, Rubio referred to suggestive and baseless talking points lacking evidence while making it clear he was “not speaking about Jamaica.”

“Yeah, well – yeah, I think the first thing is to separate the medical from the labor issues that we are pointing to, okay?” asked Rubio. “This is not about doctors. This is not about the provision of medical assistance. We have no problem with medical assistance, and we don’t have a problem with doctors. We have a problem – and I’m not speaking about Jamaica; they’ve – they’re – we discussed this today about following international labor standards and the like. But I’m just talking about this program in general, how it’s operated around the world.”

Suddenly, no more press conferences until Guyana. Instead, the State Department issued basic readouts of his meetings with several foreign leaders. After meeting with the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Stuart Young, the readout was almost boilerplate, thanking Young for Trinidad and Tobago’s cooperation to promote “energy security” and enhanced coordination on the “deportation of illegal aliens.”

“Secretary Rubio and Prime Minister Young discussed the Trump Administration’s decision to name the dangerous Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and encouragement for regional partners to take similar steps,” State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce said via the readout. “Secretary Rubio encouraged Prime Minister Young to join the United States and other Caribbean democracies in limiting malign influence in the region.”

His meeting with Haiti’s transitional president, Fritz Aphonse Jean, was summed up in a less than exciting readout. With Haiti’s security supposedly stting atop the agenda for the U.S., not having a press conference about it is telling. The Jamaican Prime Minister, for example, emphasized the importance of bolstering and expanding Haiti’s national police. Meanwhile, all Rubio offered was to reinforce “the importance of coordination,” offering no public solutions or suggestions as Haiti continues to struggle.

“Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Haitian Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) President Fritz Alphonse Jean today during his visit to Kingston, Jamaica,” Bruce said via the readout. “Secretary Rubio noted the dire security situation in Port-au-Prince and commended the extraordinary bravery of the Haitian National Police, and all international personnel supporting the Multinational Security Support mission, for their work to establish stability and security in the country. Secretary Rubio reinforced the importance of coordination across the Haitian government to fight the criminal gangs terrorizing the Haitian people.”

Arguably, the most important meeting on Wednesday was with Barbados Prime Minister and sitting CARICOM president Mia Motley. She represents the interests of her country and those of twenty others, including the decisions of the emergency meeting to prepare for Rubio’s visit to the Caribbean. However, the readout doesn’t offer us much regarding those discussions. They talked about “strong historic ties,” and Rubio pushed for Barbados to designate “the Venezuelan criminal network, Tren de Aragua, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.”

“Secretary Rubio and Prime Minister Mottley discussed regional security efforts, such as the United States partnership with Barbados under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative with efforts focused on countering illicit narcotics and firearms trafficking, prosecuting transnational organized crime, and strengthening regional security cooperation,” said Bruce via the readout. “The Secretary and Prime Minister discussed energy cooperation, with the Prime Minister making an economic case for the region premised on energy.”

Rubio also “expressed his interest” in working with Mottley’s leadership “in the effort to stabilize Haiti.” This unprepared look for Rubio seems to highlight ulterior motives behind his trip. That much has quickly become clear. It seems as though Haiti wasn’t the priority they claimed it was, and a large part of his trip was about trying to restore relationships he damaged after throwing around accusations of human trafficking as if they were meaningless words.

On Thursday, Rubio and Guyanese President Irfaan Ali signed a security cooperation memorandum of understanding. The agreement is presumably to help in the fight against transnational crime and likely involves some protections from Venezuela, as Rubio suggested in the press conference with President Ali.

“This country has an opportunity to transform, an opportunity for transformative change,” Rubio said. “And what I mean by transformative change is not simply oil and gas fields. And that’s very important, that’s very critical. But that’s just the basic ingredient that allows prosperity to happen.”

Watching Rubio’s speech at the press conference, it’s hard not to notice that Rubio sounds like he’s trying to sell Guyana on the idea of giving the U.S. access to its natural resources. His militaristic, saber-rattling tone when asked about Venezuela was also telling as the U.S. builds its military posture on multiple fronts. Rubio’s press conference in Guyana highlights the “do as we say or there will be consequences” strategy – even justifying silencing dissent at home.

Noticeably, all the talk of “energy security” revolved around the U.S. accessing the vast oil and gas reserves in the Caribbean. It seems that the State Department is working more on positioning the country to grab as much of it as possible than anything else. Aside from all the carnival barking about Cuban doctors and Venezuelan oil, Rubio provided no alternatives, and when it came to Haiti’s security, he offered nothing new.

“It would be a very bad day for the Venezuelan regime if they were to attack Guyana or attack ExxonMobil or anything like it,” Rubio said. “It would be a very bad day or a very bad week for them, and it would not end well for them.”

But Rubio was more than ready to talk oil and gas while continuing to villainize Venezuelans (and migrants in general) as dangerous gang members. He easily found the words to justify ignoring civil liberties and to sell the Trump administration's bigoted and fascist ideas to our closest neighbors. He had plenty to say when it came to normalizing mass deportation and mass arrests and demonizing anyone who would dare seek a better life in a foreign country.

It’s all part of the process for this administration.

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