Rubio promises to defend Guyana

Latin America Daily Briefing

Jordana Timerman
March 28, 2025

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday that there would be “consequences” if Venezuela used force to assert claims to the Essequibo, resource-rich territories under Guyanese control. At a news conference in Georgetown, Rubio said that the U.S. government would steadfastly oppose “the regional threats based on illegitimate territorial claims by a narco-trafficking regime.”

Rubio and Hugh Todd, Guyana’s foreign minister, signed a memorandum of understanding on security cooperation before the news conference, reports the New York Times.

China’s government bristled at the strengthening ties between Guyana and the United States in online comments a day after a Rubio’s visit to Georgetown, reports the Associated Press

After Rubio’s visit to Guyana, he traveled to Suriname where he joked at a news conference about the ruggedness of Guyana’s airport road built with China’s help.

“They don’t do a bad job, they do a terrible job,” the U.S. diplomat said of China’s projects abroad. “I just came from Guyana, where we had to drive on a road the Chinese built. We almost all had concussions, because the road was so bad. It was terrible.”

Background

• Connectas delves into the longstanding dispute over the Essequibo region, a centuries long disagreement that took on new relevance when Guyana discovered offshore oil deposits.

Regional Relations

• Venezuela is boosting oil exports to China to the highest in almost two years as the Trump administration deploys sanctions and secondary tariffs against Maduro’s government. (Bloomberg)
  
  
• Trump’s tariffs on countries that purchase Venezuelan oil are an example of what an “America first” approach to Venezuela looks like, writes Geoff Ramsey in the New Atlanticist. “What is clear is that, at the same time that Trump is seeking to box out foreign companies, he is preserving space for US companies to operate in Venezuela’s oil sector.”
  
  
• U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Colombia yesterday, where she “made a point of publicly easing the tense relations between the Donald Trump and Gustavo Petro administrations,” reports El País.
  
  
• The U.S. Trump administration’s spending cuts parallel efforts by Argentine President Javier Milei, who told the Washington Post that there has been a constant feedback loop between the two governments. While Milei says talks are “advancing” over a free-trade agreement with the United States, analysts say such a deal is unlikely.

Argentina

• Milei said yesterday that there was “no room” for a sharp devaluation of the local peso, addressing investor fears about a potential weakening of the currency that has driven a renewed flight to dollars, reports Reuters.

BRICS

• If Turkey and Saudi Arabia join BRICS as members, it could indicate broader shifts in the global order. It would also reveal whether membership in the bloc “enhances strategic autonomy or complicates ties to Western partners for policymakers in Ankara and Riyadh,” write Oliver Stuenkel and Margot Treadwell in Foreign Policy. (Via Latin America Risk Report)

Deportations

• Human rights groups denounced Noem’s visit to El Salvador’s megaprison as “political theater” designed to spread fear in immigrant communities, reports the Guardian. (See yesterday’s post.)
  
  
• Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift a temporary order blocking him from using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 law to swiftly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members as part of his two-month-old administration’s hardline approach to immigration, reports Reuters.
  
  
• A plane carrying 178 Venezuelan migrants landed in Caracas early this morning, marking the latest deportation effort since deportation flights from the United States resumed last week, reports the Miami Herald.

Mexico

• Facing potential economic fallout from planned U.S. tariffs, Mexican authorities are pushing the Trump administration to exclude Mexican vehicles and car parts from planned 25% levies on automobile imports, reports the Los Angeles Times.
  
  
• Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s secret to dealing with Trump is appeasement, and she hasn’t been called out on it because “the country’s political opposition and independent media are too crushed to name the policy for what it is,” argues David Frum in the Atlantic.

Brazil

• Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro scored a legal win yesterday, after the country’s prosecutor-general tossed a federal police investigation that accused him of falsifying his COVID-19 vaccination status, reports the Associated Press.

Haiti

• Illegal weapons smuggled into Haiti are fueling the country’s increasing gang violence and leading to severe human rights abuses, according to a new U.N. report. More than 4,200 people were killed from July to February, and another 1,356 were injured, the report found. (Associated Press)

Colombia

• Colombian foreign minister Laura Sarabia’s “closeness to the president, her conservative tendencies and her ties to recent scandals have caused friction within government, with some of it spilling out into public view,” reports Bloomberg.

Ecuador

• Ecuador’s Indigenous movement will throw its support behind Correista presidential candidate Luisa González, ahead of the April 13 runoff election pitting her against incumbent Daniel Noboa. (Telesur)

Cuba

• U.S. financed Radio Martí resumed broadcasting to Cuba on Wednesday, reversing a controversial decision following President Donald Trump’s order to reduce its parent agency to the minimum, reports the Miami Herald.

Panama

Panama’s government has approved safe passage for former President Ricardo Martinelli to leave the country for Nicaragua — he has been sheltering in the country’s embassy in Panama City after facing prison for money laundering, reports Al Jazeera.

EnergiesNet.com 03 31 2025