Elizabeth Morgan | Marco Rubio’s vision for Latin America and the Caribbean: Subjugated US allies

Marco Rubio, US secretary of state and national security adviser, has always had an interest in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). He was born in Miami, Florida, in 1971 to Cuban immigrants. His parents actually came to the USA in 1956 during the revolt against the Cuban dictator, Fulgencio Batista.

 From 1985, the family has lived continuously in the Miami area. Rubio, who is fluent in Spanish, grew up in the very anti-Castro atmosphere of Miami, where nearly 50 per cent of all Cuban immigrants and their descendants live. If you visit Miami, you will find that it is quite bilingual. It is also the flight gateway to the LAC region.

After university, Rubio, a Republican, entered politics. He was a leader of the very conservative, populist Tea Party Movement. Eventually, he was elected to the US Senate in November, 2010.  Marco Rubio supports a US interventionist policy. He wants to see a closer relationship between the USA and the LAC, with the US being the dominant power, and the role of any other powers minimised, if not eliminated. He also wants to promote US-defined democracy in the region, so he is anti-Cuba, anti-Venezuela, anti-Nicaragua, and anti other left-leaning socialist governments.

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S LAC POLICY

Since becoming US secretary of state on January 21, 2025, Marco Rubio has been the architect of the Trump administration’s LAC foreign policy. This is all the ambition of Marco Rubio, who also wants to become US president. His first visit as secretary of state was to the LAC region in February 2025, when he visited Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic.
 This was described as a historic development, as it was the first time since 1912 that a US secretary of state had made his first visit to the LAC region. There was talk of returning the USA to its golden age at the end of the 19th century into the early 20th century. It seems that their historical facts did not show that this was not a golden age for LAC countries under US influence.

To show US thought, recall that in January 2025 President Trump threatened that the US would take back the Panama Canal and annex Canada as its 51st state.

In March 2025, Secretary of State Rubio honoured Jamaica and other CARICOM countries with an early visit. The impression was given that he came as a friend concerned about the involvement of Cuba and China in the region.

In May 2025, Rubio was also appointed national security adviser in addition to his role as secretary of state – more power added.

In December 2025, the US National Security Strategy was published and made it very clear that the US’s LAC policy would be a return to the Monroe Doctrine of the 19th century with an added Trump Corollary to update it. For this, reference is made to the articles of this column titled ‘The US National Security Strategy – modernising the Monroe Doctrine’ on December 10, 2025, and of January 7, 2026 titled ‘Are countries in the Western Hemisphere to become more subjugated US satellites?’

Of the US’s relationship with the LAC, as a reminder, the Trump Corollary states:

“After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere, and to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region. We will deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our Hemisphere. This ‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine is a common-sense and potent restoration of American power and priorities, consistent with American security interests.”

WHAT HAS HAPPENED SINCE?

∙        The US stationed military forces in the southern Caribbean Sea since September 2025 and killed over 200 alleged narco-terrorists.

∙        In February, US military forces seized President Nicholás Maduro from Venezuela, detaining him in the USA.  Regime change did not occur as Maduro’s vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, is now acting president, endorsed by the Trump administration. Democracy has not returned to Venezuela.

∙        Panama is complying with US demands and has terminated port management arrangements with Chinese firms in the Canal Zone.

∙        Mexico is treading cautiously, endeavouring to protect its sovereignty.

∙        Jamaica and other CARICOM countries have terminated medical personnel arrangements with Cuba.

∙        The mission to destroy the Cuban regime commenced with threats of tariffs being applied on countries supplying oil to Cuba; ending medical personnel programmes; blockading oil supplies, and stopping oil supplies from Venezuela.

∙        Influencing general elections in Central and South America to ensure that candidates supportive of conservative policies and of the Trump administration are elected or retain power. These countries include Argentina, Honduras, Chile, Peru, and Colombia. The Trump administration is also accused of meddling in the upcoming Brazilian presidential elections in October. 

It will be recalled that former President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro was a keen supporter of President Trump. The aim of the Trump administration, including Marco Rubio, is to ensure that governments elected in the region are right-wing conservative and fully supporting the USA on every issue.

∙        Agreements have been imposed on countries to take foreign deportees from the USA. The US deportation and removal of people to foreign countries is being challenged in US courts as illegal. There are also protests in the USA against immigrant detention centres sited there. A court ordered one in Florida closed.

Note that Jamaica’s ally, the USA, starting in 2025, imposed tariffs on goods imported from Jamaica, setting aside the Caribbean Basin Initiative. These tariffs were found to be illegal in the US trade court, which was upheld by the US Supreme Court. A 10 per cent tariff was still imposed under the 1974 Trade Act, which should expire in July. It is also challenged in the US trade court.

The US has also reduced aid to Caribbean countries with the demise of the USAID, though it donated to hurricane relief.

So, here is Secretary Rubio’s vision for the future of the LAC region, a return to being subjugated, puppet states of the USA, turning back the hands of time. 

In the past, Jamaica and other CARICOM States were saved from the worst of US pseudo-colonial influence because they were territories of Britain.

Now, cloaked in fear, CARICOM countries are toeing the line. The call to “be not afraid” has become meaningless. Fear of sanctions and gunboat diplomacy is winning the day among regional governments. Let us at least, as a people, have the courage to voice our objection to the subjugation planned by Secretary Rubio as he seeks to revive a past US golden age over which he could eventually reign.

 Elizabeth Morgan is a specialist in international trade policy and international politics.