BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, MC -The United States has sought to reassure its good relationship with the Caribbean, which it considers its third border, ahead of theUS Marco Rubio’s visi Marco Rubio’s visit to Guyana and Sur, name.
On Wednesday, in Jamaica, Rubio will also hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti.
“The United States, of course, enjoys strong, enduring partnerships across the Caribbean. When the Caribbean prospers, the United States prospers. Our people-to-people ties are also vital,” said U.S. DeUSment of State spokesperson Tammy Bruce during an on-the-record call with journalists on Tuesday.
“Millions of Americans trace their roots to the Caribbean, enriching our society in countless ways. Likewise, hundreds of thousands of US citizens live in Caribbean nations, deepening those ties daily.
“We also, of course, collaborate closely on security, particularly to disrupt narcotics and firearms trafficking and combatting transnational organized crime through efforts like the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative,” he said, adding that “together we will enhance shared economic prosperity and strengthen energy security as well.
“We will also address illegal immigration, seek to dismantle transnational criminal networks, and push back against malign influences that threaten the stability of our hemisphere.”
The US Special Envoy for Latin America, Mauricio Claver-Carone, said Washington is all too familiar with the opportunities and challenges that the third border, the Caribbean, presents and that the visit over the next few days “is symbolic of those opportunities.
“In the preview with many of these Caribbean leaders regarding the Secretary’s trip, the focus that the Secretary wanted to hone in on is the big opportunity and the challenge, right, and focusing on one opportunity and one challenge. It’s a big opportunity, and again, it’s a big challenge.”
He said energy security has been the Achilles heel of the Caribbean for so long, and its economic development is hindered by disproportionately high electricity and energy prices.
“The fact that they are all dependent importers and supply issues in that regard. That’s also led to a long history of extortive practices from PetroCaribe, Venezuela, which we’ve seen historically.
“All of that has ended, and there is a time to turn the page, which is one of the focuses on these trips, the historic opportunity for energy security in the Caribbean, which will improve people’s lives, will improve also the opportunities and the relationship with the United States and what that means, and obviously, will strengthen our neighbors, which we seek.”
He acknowledged that the situation in Haiti is also presenting a “challenge,” and “obviously, we all know, and we share the deep commitment to tackling this challenge in Haiti.
“The Secretary is very familiar with the challenges posed there. It’s an intricate part of the community that the Secretary comes from and something we’ve been dealing with for a long time, we look to work with our Caribbean neighbors to handle that particular challenge in this regard.”
Claver-Carone said Rubio’s visit to the region “was thematically put together to address some of these challenges.”
“Jamaica is our most like-minded partner in the Caribbean. It is also a massive opportunity regarding not only the commercial shipping lanes that all go through Jamaica, which is key to our security, our maritime security, and our commercial shipping lane security, but also as regards narcotics trafficking.
“So, obviously, combatting these transnational criminal organizations is very key in Jamaica, and the partnership with Jamaica there has been extraordinary, but also arms trafficking and arms trafficking to Haiti, which is exacerbated, which is what feeds the gang violence in Haiti.
“So, Jamaica is a key partner from a security perspective in regards to dealing with counternarcotics, in regards to dealing with arms trafficking, and in deepening that coordination will help not only improve the security and safety of Americans but also in dealing with this shared challenge that we have in Haiti.”
He said that Jamaica is also a key partner on the commercial side, maintaining the maritime routes from the Panama Canal and the upward flows through the region.
“We want to strengthen that. This has been a discussion with Jamaica for a long time. The government, Prime Minister Holness, has been a great ally and has made great strides in dealing with the crime issues in Jamaica.
“The economic, fiscal management of Jamaica has been one of the bright spots not only in the Caribbean but in the entire region in that regard, and helping them deal with that criminality, et cetera, is going to increase as well – the opportunities and the development of perhaps one of our greatest allies in the Caribbean there in Jamaica.”
Claver-Carone said that while in Jamaica, Rubio is also going to meet and will also have bilaterals with Haiti “obviously to deal with this huge challenge that we all face in dealing with the gang violence.”
He said the discussions on Haiti are also to ensure that the Haitian National Police and the provisional government have the support they need to tackle the violence of these gangs, which is essential for the security not only of the United States but also of the entire Caribbean.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley is also the current chair of the 15-member regional integration movement, CARICOM, and Claver-Carone said, “These kinds of joint topics and issues of energy security in Haiti are a great opportunity to meet that, even though we’re deeply committed to the bilateral relationship with each of these Caribbean nations.
“There’s a dozen, and it’s a lot of work, but we’re deeply committed to the bilateral relationship with each island. But we look forward to working on some of these broader, cohesive issues with the leadership of Barbados and CARICOM.”
Trinidad and Tobago, which Claver-Carone said has been an energy leader in the region, is going through its development as it seeks to revitalize its natural gas opportunities. It is also going through that modernization as some of the older fields and opportunities there dry up, and they’re looking for new ones.
“There, along with a lot of the challenges posed by Venezuela, we’re deeply committed to working with Trinidad to figure out how to re-energize those natural gas opportunities and ensure that its economy continues to move forward despite the challenges presented with Venezuela and otherwise”.
He said Rubio’s visit to Guyana, which is poised this year to become the largest per capita oil producer in the world, “the security of Guyana is a key priority for us in the same way that we have been working with countries in the Gulf states to ensure the security cooperation from the regional threats there.
“We want to work with Guyana to ensure security cooperation there and its security guarantees. We’ve seen the threats from Venezuela. We’ve seen the approaches towards Exxon facilities.
“That’s unacceptable, and we want to work together to ensure binding – and find an agreement towards binding security cooperation,” he said, adding, “that’s a win-win for both Guyana and the United States, and I think that’s going to be a big part of the Secretary’s conversations while he’s there.”
Claver-Carone said these oil developments are perhaps the most significant offshore opportunity in the world today, and with an administration that doesn’t punish countries for that development.
“We saw in the previous administration, in the Biden administration, that countries like Guyana were asked almost to halt their development and progress in favor of renewables. No, we want to see Guyana succeed. We want to see it develop. We believe renewables are complementary in that regard and are not a substitute.
“So, we want to support Guyana in this development but protect it also from the threats being posed,” he said.
Washington also regards the visit to Suriname as a “huge opportunity in its energy development.
“Again, together with Guyana and Suriname, which – and the history of Trinidad with natural gas – this is an opportunity that countries from the CARICOM community, from the region, are going to be able to – be able to support each other, to be able to create an energy security framework, which has already changed the geopolitics of the region.
“If we think back to the first Trump Administration, we were dealing with the charges of PetroCaribe, with the challenges of the corruption, the endemic corruption that PetroCaribe and Venezuela were bringing to the islands of the region, the extortion that they were bringing to the region.”
Claver-Carone said the fact that now Guyana and Suriname are able to surpass Venezuela in oil production and work with their neighbors in the region “is a huge opportunity for the Caribbean, along with natural gas, microgrids, et cetera, to finally try to put an end to that huge Achilles’ heel to its economic development and security.
“That’s the goal, that’s the priority. And that’ll be where many of our conversations will be focused, and the Secretary’s conversation will be focused during this trip,” he added.
Regarding the question of the Cuban health brigade system that regional countries have stoutly defended after Washington announced new measures to deal with what it claimed to be “forced labor”, Claver-Carone said, “I’m sure that’s going to be on the agenda.
“They’ll raise it holistically. Look, we’ve been very clear: The United States stands firmly against human trafficking. The Trump administration and President Trump have been a leader in the fight against human trafficking…,
“It’s not just the Caribbean. The Caribbean has made this …an important issue because they’re present in the Caribbean, it’s historic, and it’s prolonged. Still, they have been trafficked throughout the world in violation of the International Labour Organization’s accords of treatment, where they have their salaries and their passports hijacked by the Cuban government during their stay.”
Claver-Carone said this is not an issue regarding the quality of Cuban doctors.
“The quality of Cuban doctors and their work in the Caribbean, Haiti, et cetera, is excellent; it’s extraordinary. And at the end of the day, we have to recognize that and want to.
“What we are asking is that they do not support human trafficking, that they support – and I know that there have been some efforts, particularly starting with Barbados, to directly pay these Cuban doctors so that they are – have a certain amount of freedom of movement and freedom of their professional practice, et cetera.
“I mean, we understand how the Cuban regime works in maintaining control over these individuals. But we want to have a united voice against indentured servitude, against human trafficking, in favor of International Labour Organization standards, global standards, and international standards for the treatment of workers, regardless of what type they are.”
He said Washington is going to continue to take a strong stand against human trafficking across the spectrum, adding, “In this regard, we feel that Cuban doctors and the trafficking of them falls within that category.
“And we look forward to working with mechanisms with our Caribbean neighbors to ensure that they can hire the doctors directly, that they feel like doing so on their free will and with their free movement, and their freedom of practice and expression. And that’s an important conversation that will be had and has begun and surely will be raised for the Secretary,” Claver-Carone said.
Caribbean leaders are also expected to raise travel restrictions related to the citizenship by investment program (CBI) through which foreign investors are granted citizenship of some Caribbean countries in return for making a substantial investment in the socio-economic development of these countries.
In addition, Washington’s recent announcement that it would be imposing tariffs on Chinese-linked vessels has resulted in Caribbean governments warning about the increased cost of living in their territories.
Claver-Carone said that Washington had long been concerned about the CBI program and that “obviously, in some of these islands in the Caribbean, there is a lot of movement from not only Chinese nationals but Iranian nationals and other countries that affect not only the national security of the United States but, frankly, that affect the security of these islands.
“That’ll be also an issue for conversation. We want to ensure that our goal here is not to impede the development of these islands. We want these islands to have the opportunities.
“Again, when you talk about inflationary pressures, the most considerable inflationary pressure in the Caribbean is energy, energy costs. So that’s why we’re holistically focused on electricity, energy costs, and energy security to spread it. Because that then spills over into tourism, tourism development, et cetera.
“So where we want to be is in a place where some of these islands don’t find these citizenship-by-investment programs which attract, unfortunately, nefarious actors from China, Iran, and other countries into the Americas, which then becomes a security challenge for all of us.”
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