Rubio’s stance on LatAm in the Senate hearing
Latin America Daily Briefing
Jordana Timerman
January 17, 2025
Marco Rubio, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, focused his hearing yesterday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to explain the incoming administration’s vision for an “America First” foreign policy. (El País)
“The most striking aspect of Rubio’s hearing — particularly in the wake of Tuesday’s contentious hearing for Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Pentagon pick — was how civilized, polite, and downright friendly it was,” according to the Washington Post. “Democrats appeared relieved to be addressing a known quantity.”
He is expected to be confirmed quickly: “He has served for years on the Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committees in the Senate, and is known as a lawmaker devoted to the details of foreign policy,” reports the New York Times.
Rubio will be accompanied by a series of special envoys assigned by Trump to hotspots around the world, including Mauricio Claver-Carone, for Latin America policy, notes the Miami Herald. Claver-Carone will be an ally for Rubio on Cuba and Venezuela, but “the flurry of unusual diplomatic appointments leaves” Rubio “with limited room to lead on critical policy portfolios,” according to the Miami Herald.
Rubio spoke repeatedly of the “terror” caused by Mexican drug trafficking organizations and insisted on the plan to designate cartels as terrorist groups, a particularly thorny point between both countries due to the possibility that it could serve as justification for the use of military force by Washington, reports El País. “It is important for us to not just go after these groups but identify them and call them what they are,” Rubio stressed. “[The cartels] are terrorizing America with mass migration and a flow of drugs,” he said.
Rubio said yesterday that the answer to Haiti’s gang-fueled security crisis will not come from U.S. military intervention, but could still come from a multinational support effort spearheaded by the Biden administration, indicating that the incoming administration will continue the current U.S. policy course on Haiti’s security emergency, reports the Miami Herald, separately.
He said the Biden administration “got played” by the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who he says has earned “billions of dollars” in foreign oil licenses approved by Biden officials — and then broke his pledge to hold fair elections. (New York Times)
Rubio said he believes Cuba is a state sponsor of terrorism, a day after Biden decided to lift that designation. However, he demurred when questioned whether he would reverse that decision, saying it’s Trump’s job to choose policy. “Nothing that was agreed to is irreversible or binding,” he added. (New York Times)
With regards to the Panama Canal, which Trump has threatened to “take back” from Panama, Rubio said he hasn’t “looked at the legal research,” but he is “compelled to suspect that an argument could be made that the terms under which that canal were turned over has been violated.” He added that “Panama is a great partner in a lot of other issues, and I hope we can resolve this issue of the canal.” (Associated Press)
Cuba
- Cuba began releasing prisoners jailed following anti-government protests in 2021, yesterday, a day after a deal brokered by the Catholic Church and U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to remove Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terror, reports Reuters. (See yesterday’s post.)
- About 20 prisoners who were convicted of different crimes — some of them after taking part in the historic 2021 protests — were released yesterday, according to Cuban civil groups. (Associated Press, AFP)
More Regional Relations
- The National Security Archive published an interview with the late former president Jimmy Carter, who adamantly believed that the U.S. embargo on Cuba was “a deprivation of American civil liberties” and called restrictions on trade and travel “unconscionable.” Peter Kornbluh and William LeoGrande write: “The interview recorded Carter’s continuing commitment to normalizing relations with Cuba long after he had attempted, through secret diplomacy, to do so during his presidency.” (See yesterday’s post.)
- Declassified documents posted in the National Security Archive include a secret, 17-page Presidential Review Memorandum (PRM) on U.S. interests and challenges in attempting to normalize relations with Cuba. Among the “many compelling reasons” it listed: “Lessening of Cuban dependence on the Soviet Union,” giving Cuba “added incentives to cease its foreign adventures in Africa,” and demonstrating U.S. “support for the universalist principles in diplomatic relations and make a major gesture to the Third World which sees our posture toward Cuba as symbolic of great-power aggression.” (See yesterday’s post.)
- U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s threats to take over the Panama Canal are likely bluster aimed at lowering fees for U.S. goods traversing the passage. “But former American officials warn that he may alienate Panama at a time when China is trying to woo the country as an ally and expand its influence in Latin America,” reports the New York Times.
Brazil
- Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was invited to Trump’s inauguration next week — but will likely be denied judicial permission to travel, required because his role in a coup plot following his electoral defeat in 2022 is under investigation. “That likely split screen — Mr. Trump returning to the world’s most powerful job while Mr. Bolsonaro stays home on court orders — would encapsulate the two political doppelgängers’ starkly divergent paths since they were voted out of office and then claimed fraud,” reports the New York Times.
Venezuela
- Venezuelan NGO Espacio Publico said that its director, Carlos Correa, has been released from detention, reports Reuters.
- “…In 2025, with the denouement of the long anticipated presidential election cycle, Venezuela may be beginning a new chapter that calls for a reassessment of political strategy,” writes Michael Shifter in El País. “Some lessons from successful democratic transitions in Latin America and Europe are useful, but Venezuela has many particularities that set it apart from others.”
- Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro named a stalwart ally, attorney general Tarek William Saab, to head a new constitutional reform project. (El País)
Migration
- Trump reportedly intends to launch rapid mass deportation campaign as soon as he takes office — “so, what would a mass deportation
- Trump’s threats could lead to a surge of migration to the EU, according to the Financial Times.
- Advocates and immigration experts say a number of migrants are self-deporting ahead of Trump’s swearing in. “There isn’t data on these departures, but history has seen other eras of public backlash that drove migrants — with or without legal status — out,” reports the Associated Press.
Regional
- “In Why Presidents Fail: Political Parties and Government Survival in Latin America, Christopher Martínez combines rigorous quantitative analysis with detailed case studies for seven countries in South America to account for why some presidents are forced out of office before the end of their terms. … Martínez suggests that the resilience of party systems is a key factor in determining why some presidents are able to survive political crises—the weaker the party system, the harder it is for presidents to successfully navigate major problems.” – Americas Quarterly
Cooperation
- The Mexican firefighters that are helping in Los Angeles – New York Times
