BASSETERRE, St. Kitts and Nevis (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is meeting on Wednesday with Caribbean leaders for talks expected to center on regional concerns and uncertainty about Trump administration policies in the Western Hemisphere.
Rubio addressed leaders of 15-nation Caribbean Community bloc behind closed doors in the country of St. Kitts and Nevis before beginning a series of separate one-on-one meetings, which will include the prime
ministers of St. Kitts, Trinidad and Tobago, and others.
They will debate pressing issues in a region that President Donald Trump has targeted for a 21st-century incarnation of the Monroe Doctrine to ensure Washington’s dominance in the hemisphere. The Republican administration has declared a focus closer to home even as Washington increasingly has been preoccupied by the possibility of a U.S. military attack on Iran.
A buildup of U.S. warships and aircraft in the Middle East has exceeded the surge of assets in the Caribbean Sea before the American military raid last month that captured Venezuela's then-leader, Nicolás Maduro. Trump called that operation "an absolutely colossal victory for the security of the United States” during his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
Trump also has stepped up aggressive tactics to combat alleged drug smuggling and turned up the pressure on Cuba. Caribbean leaders have complained about administration demands for nations to accept third-country deportees from the U.S. and to chill relations with China.
Godwin Friday, newly elected prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, echoed the fears of many European leaders when he said the Caribbean is “challenged from inside and out.”
"International rules and practices that we have become used to over the years have changed in troubling ways,” Friday said.
Trump said during the State of the Union that his administration is “restoring American security and dominance in the Western Hemisphere, acting to secure our national interests and defend our country from violence, drugs, terrorism and foreign interference.”
During Tuesday’s opening ceremony, Terrance Drew, prime minister of St. Kitts and Nevis and CARICOM chair, said the region “stands at a decisive hour.”
“The global order is shifting,” he said. “Supply chains remain uncertain, energy markets fluctuate and climate shocks intensify.”
Like other leaders, Drew spoke about changing geopolitics and said the humanitarian situation in Cuba must be addressed and taken seriously, something also stressed by Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
“It must be clear that a prolonged crisis in Cuba will not remain confined to Cuba,” Holness warned. “It will affect migration, security and economic stability across the Caribbean basin.”
Holness said that Jamaica “stands firmly for democracy” and that his country also "supports constructive dialogue between Cuba and the U.S. aimed at de-escalation, reform and stability.”
The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday slightly eased restrictions on the sale of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, which instituted austere fuel-saving measures in the weeks after the U.S. raid in Venezuela.
Rubio was intending to discuss ways to promote regional security and stability, trade and economic growth with Caribbean leaders, the U.S. State Department said.
Caribbean leaders also are expected to talk about other issues such as security, reparations, climate change and financing, and a single market economy.
Rubio’s visit comes more than a month after the U.S. captured Maduro and took him to the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges. Maduro has pleaded not guilty, protesting his capture and declaring himself “the president of my country.”
The U.S. also has killed at least 151 people in strikes targeting small boats accused of smuggling drugs since early September. The latest attack Monday killed three people in the Caribbean Sea. The U.S. has not provided evidence that the targeted boats are ferrying drugs.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago has previously praised the attacks. On Tuesday, she repeated that sentiment, thanking Trump, Rubio and the U.S. military “for standing firm against narcotrafficking" and for their cooperation in national security matters.
“The crime is so bad, I cannot depend on just my military, my protective services,” she said.
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Coto reported from San José, Costa Rica. Associated Press reporters Bert Wilkinson in Georgetown, Guyana, and Andrea Rodríguez in Havana contributed to this report.
