Secretary of State Marco Rubio landed in Saint Kitts and Nevis on Wednesday to participate in CARICOM, a forum that mainly brings together former British colonies in the Caribbean. This is a historic visit by the second most powerful man in Washington, arriving in an island nation of less than 50,000 inhabitants. The mission is clear and finds common ground with Venezuela, Cuba, and especially this week, Panama: to limit China's presence in the region. Just as the Secretary of State formally secured the exit of an Asian company from the management of the Panama Canal on Monday, the new goal is to reverse Beijing's investments in the Caribbean, which cover strategic sectors such as infrastructure and renewable energy. Rubio offers economic support and investments, but the central issue is security, which was reflected in Tuesday's speech by the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who endorses the destruction of boats in the Caribbean and openly calls for greater U.S. intervention to dismantle the mafias operating in the region. A detail: Persad-Bissessar attacked CARICOM partners who remained silent when her country was in the crosshairs of Nicolás Maduro, now imprisoned in New York. Cuba is another front of the trip that contains messages for Mexico. Rubio is strongly pressuring Caribbean countries to completely withdraw Cuban doctors, as their hiring provides economic relief to the regime in its darkest hour. The Secretary of State warns of visa revocations for those who do not comply with the request, something that has already happened with a minister from Grenada and his wife, causing concern in the health cabinet of Claudia Sheinbaum, which is where the presence of Cuban doctors in the country is managed. Finally, the multilateral calculation: CARICOM represents 14 votes in the OAS and the UN that, when the time comes, Rubio wants to control, both for future scenarios in Cuba and Venezuela and also for the election of the next Secretary-General of the United Nations.
