As secretary of state, Rubio will bring more U.S. attention to Latin America, say experts

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President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Sen. Marco Rubio as his secretary of state is likely to bring more attention to Latin America and the Caribbean, a region often historically overlooked by U.S. policy makers, two experts on Latin America and the Caribbean told WLRN’s South Florida Roundup.

Leland Lazarus, associate director of national security at Florida International University's Gordon Institute, said he expects Rubio, if approved by the Senate, to spotlight China’s growing influence in the region and push for more U.S. private sector investment.

“I expect the Trump administration and Secretary Rubio to pressure more countries to choose” the U.S. over China, Russian and other rivals on the global stage, Lazarus told South Florida Roundup host Tim Padgett on Friday.

China’s trade with the region ballooned 35-fold from 2000 to 2022, reaching nearly $500 billion, according to data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

At the same time, China’s diplomatic engagement in the region has become more effective, with China's Xi Jinping visiting 11 Latin American countries since becoming president, according to Xinhua, China’s main state news agency.

Last Thursday night, Xi started his visit to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru by inaugurating a China-backed $1.3 billion megaport north of Lima. It is perhaps the clearest sign of Latin America’s ongoing reorientation in the region.

FIU’s Lazarus said Rubio’s op-ed last month in the Miami Herald showed the tough stance he and the Trump administration will take against China. Rubio called Huawei, the China-based telecom giant, a “geopolitical asset of the Chinese Communist Party” and “a major threat to the sovereignty and national security of any country that adopts it.”

During his first term, Trump targeted Huawei and other Chinese technology firms over security concerns. Biden continued in that direction by placing curbs on China’s access to advanced semiconductors, which are needed to develop strategic industries such as artificial intelligence. The U.S. has appealed to Latin American governments to reject telecoms investment, saying it could open the door to Chinese government spying.

Brian Fonseca, an expert on Latin America security issues and director of FIU’s Gordon Institute, predicts Rubio will increase sanctions against the “troika of tyranny,” an expression former U.S. National Security Advisor John R. Bolton used to describe the authoritarian regimes running Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. And “propping up” opposition movements in those countries.

He said Rubio will likely seek out more partners in the region, including Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, to help stem the flow of illegal migration to the U.S., which is mostly coming from Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.

He added that China and other countries seeking influence in Latin America and the Caribbean, along with the issue of immigration, will likely top Rubio’s agenda in leading the State Department.

Fonseca agreed that Haiti poses one of the most difficult foreign policy issues facing the incoming Trump administration.

He said Rubio will push for more security, “while trying to put more pressure and move opposition movements into taking control over the stability of Haiti going forward.”

The U.S. has stepped up its campaign to transform the Kenya-led multinational force in Haiti into a U.N. peacekeeping force, spurred by escalating gang violence that shut all air traffic to the capital of Port-au-Prince this week.

The power of gangs in Haiti has grown since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. The surge in killings, rapes and kidnappings has led to a violent uprising by civilian vigilante groups.

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