Rubio says he is putting ‘Americas, first’ but the Cuba fixation might drive neighbors away

Heads of state in Latin America and the Caribbean have long complained that the region is treated as an after-thought by most US administrations.

Heads of state in Latin America and the Caribbean have long complained that the region is treated as an after-thought by most US administrations. But now that the Western Hemisphere is under the microscope from the Trump administration from everything from migration to drug smuggling to human trafficking, those same leaders may be missing the old days of relative benign neglect. US administration officials have taken to referring to the Caribbean as the US’ “third border,” another red line where the flow of drugs, illegal migration and China’s growing influence need to be countered. “When President Donald Trump came into office, he committed to ensuring our foreign policy aligned with our nation’s interests. To realize his vision, we are putting our region, the Americas, first,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in the Miami Herald on Saturday. Some Latin American diplomats privately grumble that the Trump administration is ramping up pressure on their countries at the same time it cuts billions of dollars in badly needed USAID funding to the region. The policy, they say, is more sticks and too few carrots and that the State Department under Rubio has become fixated on opposing Cuban and Venezuelan influence when other issues including the impacts of climate change, rising inequality and a gang-ravaged Haiti on the verge of collapse should take precedence.