Rubio heads to Caribbean to reassert US interests after Venezuela strikes and Iran threats

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to the Caribbean country of St. Kitts and Nevis this week to reassert the Trump administration’s interests in the Western Hemisphere just a month after the U.S. military operation that removed then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power.

With the eyes of much of the world on the U.S military buildup in the Middle East and President Donald Trump’s threats to attack Iran, Rubio will make a one-day visit to St. Kitts on Wednesday to participate in a summit of leaders from the Caribbean Community, the State Department said.

Rubio has long championed a greater U.S. role in the Western Hemisphere and aims to keep it in focus even as Trump's Republican administration has now shifted its top foreign policy priority to Iran, around which American forces are now massing in even larger numbers than in the run-up to the Jan. 3 Venezuela operation that captured and deposed Maduro.

Maduro has been accused in a U.S. court of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. and has pleaded not guilty.

Trump’s action against Maduro coupled with an increasingly aggressive posture aimed at eliminating drug trafficking and illegal migration have proven a concern for many in the region although they have also won support from some smaller states.

Trump, Rubio and others have likened the administration’s Western Hemisphere strategy to the Monroe Doctrine, with its rejection of outside influences and assertion of U.S. primacy throughout in what they consider to be “America’s backyard.”

Trump has said his ouster of Maduro, military strikes on alleged drug-running vessels in the Caribbean, seizures of sanctioned oil tankers and tightened embargo of Cuba are key parts of a Trump corollary to the 19th-century policy that he refers to as the “Donroe Doctrine.”

In numerous group and bilateral meetings at the CARICOM meeting, Rubio intends to discuss ways to promote regional security and stability, trade and economic growth, the State Department said in a statement on Monday.

"During his visit, the Secretary will reaffirm the United States’ commitment to working with CARICOM member states to enhance stability and prosperity in our hemisphere,” it said.