The Pushback Against Marco Rubio Begins in Latin America and the Caribbean

“There will be no advances in negotiations with the United States if Marco Rubio is part of the team.” Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

US-Brazil relations are apparently back on track, at least until President Trump’s next tariff tantrum. Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reportedly had a “very good meeting” with Trump on the side lines of the 47th ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur earlier this week. Lula presented Trump with a written document outlining arguments against the US tariff hikes on Brazil while also acknowledging that the US has the right to impose the measures.

At the same time, the US desperately needs a new supplier of rare earth minerals, and Brazil just so happens to be the world’s second largest after China. In other words, the economic self-interest of the US government, military and corporatocracy is now of greater importance than the fate of Trump’s recently imprisoned far-right populist buddy, Jair Bolsonaro — or for that matter, Lula’s recent pronouncements in favour of de-dollarisation.

But for any negotiations between Brazil and the US to have any chance of prospering, Lula has called for the removal of one major stumbling block: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio:

“I am a president with a lot of experience. Even though it may not seem so, I do have a lot of experience… If you want a deal to succeed but put someone with bad will at the negotiating table, there will be no deal.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated in an interview that negotiations with the USA will not progress if Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in the negotiating group

Rubio — a fierce critic of Lula, fights against governments friendly to him in Venezuela, Cuba, as… pic.twitter.com/2NROd5L9Er

— Sprinter Press News (@SprinterPress) October 28, 2025

While Lula does not call out Rubio by name in the above clip, he apparently did so at another moment in the press conference speech. According to Infobae, he said:

There will be no advances in negotiations with the United States if Marco Rubio is part of the team. He opposes our allies in Venezuela, Cuba and Argentina.

Lula has also sought to play a mediating role in the Caribbean as the Trump administration has escalated its threats and actions against Venezuela and Colombia while expanding the scope of its maritime extrajudicial killings to the Mexican Pacific.

Admittedly, it is a strange offer to make given there is only one party engaged in actual hostilities, and it shows no sign of backing down. It is also worth recalling that Lula’s relations with the Nicolás Maduro government have soured since the summer of 2023 when he single-handedly blocked Venezuela’s membership to the BRICS association.

Nevertheless, any attempt to prevent further US escalation in the Caribbean, however unikely, is welcome — not just for the sake of peace and stability in Latin America but also in the US.

The Soufan Group, a think tank focused on international politics and security, has echoed our recent warnings about the potential blowback on US soil from launching all-out war against highly organised, heavily armed drug cartels, many of which are active in the main urban centres of the United States and even in some rural areas.

By seeking the “total elimination” of the cartels, the Trump administration risks putting the US on the path towards another clumsy, short-sighted and disastrous war whose reverberations are likely to be felt much closer to home, the think tank warns. Instead, it is necessary to act “in a reasoned, legal, ethical and moral way, guided by reasonable expectations of the likelihood of success”.

The chances of that happening with the likes of Trump, Hegseth and Rubio running the show are pretty much zero, especially with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reportedly pressuring US military leaders to sign non-disclosure agreements in expectation of them speaking out against war crimes in the future.

Prioritising Strategic Minerals

Lula’s pushback against Rubio, both in public and private, does appear to be meeting some success, however, according to the Argentine geopolitical analyst Bernabé Malacalza. In an interview (in Spanish) with Diario Red, he said:

“Lula’s position has taken Marco Rubio out of the field, at least in the negotiation. He was not seen at the negotiating table during the first meeting, and that is due to the firmness of the Brazilian president.”

The recent thaw in relations between the Trump administration and the Lula government is largely due to strategic factors, says Malacalza, in particular the dispute between the US and China over control of rare earth materials.

There is a key factor at play here: the restrictions that China has imposed on rare earths. Brazil is the second largest reserve in the world. That makes it attractive to the United States.

China controls 60% of rare earths and 90% of refining, but the US would be willing to invest in Brazil. What we are seeing now is the beginning of a negotiation.

But Lula is adamant that Rubio should play no part in the talks. He is not the only Latin American leader to have publicly objected to Rubio’s leading role in the escalating tensions in the Caribbean in recent days. Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused Rubio of acting as a “brake” on hemispheric dialogue:

Marco Rubio has become a sectarian obstacle in peaceful relations between the US and the Americas.

Petro also highlighted the US’ increasing isolation at the UN, in apparent reference to the fact that almost the entire international community — 165 countries — voted in favour of ending the blockade on the island of Cuba. Only seven countries, including the United States and some of its closest allies, voted to maintain it.

Petro is right that the US is isolated on this issue, and has been for decades. What he ignores, however, is that far more countries voted against or abstained in this year’s motion than in previous years’. The seven countries that voted against were the US, Israel (quelle surprise!), Ukraine (ditto) Argentina, Paraguay, Hungary, and North Macedonia. The countries that abstained included all three Baltic states, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Czechia, Poland and Morocco.

The Empire Strikes Back

Petro’s vocal criticism of US foreign policy has already led to the cancellation of all US aid to Colombia ostensibly intended for the fight against drug trafficking. In addition, the US Treasury has placed Petro on the list of the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), known colloquially as the “Clinton List” – a registry that includes people and entities suspected of links to drug trafficking, prohibiting them from making transactions with the US financial system.

Tensions between Bogota and Washington escalated in September, when Petro eviscerated US policy in Latin America and Israel’s genocide in Gaza from the podium of the UN General Assembly. He even called for he formation of an international task force to stop the genocide in Gaza. The Trump administration responded by dropping Colombia from its list of reliable partners in the fight against narcotics. It also revoked Petro’s US visa.

Petro’s inclusion on the “Clinton List” is already taking a toll. On Wednesday, companies operating at Madrid’s Barajas airport refused to refuel the plane on which the Colombian president was travelling to Saudi Arabia out of fear of committing serious violations of OFAC regulations. According to El Tiempo, the presidential plane was transferred to a Spanish military base where it refuelled and was able to continue on its way to Saudi Arabia.

To what extent these retaliatory actions are being set by Rubio himself, it is difficult to know. Trump himself is not exactly known for his magnanimity. But one thing that is well established is Rubio’s obsession with toppling the Communist government in Cuba and allied governments in Nicaragua and Venezuela. In April, he even posted a tweet celebrating the United States and the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front’s disastrous Bay of Pigs “invasion” of Cuba.

64 years ago, the courageous patriots of Brigade 2506 embarked on a heroic mission at the Bay of Pigs in pursuit of freedom and liberty for Cuba.

Today we honor the men who risked their freedom and sacrificed their lives in seeking to liberate their homeland from Castro's…

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) April 17, 2025

One of Rubio’s first acts as secretary of state was to reinstate Cuba as a country that sponsors terrorism. In all fairness, the Biden administration kept Cuba on the list until just a few days before leaving office, when it took it off. So, really nothing much has changed.

Sanctioning Cuban Doctors and Nurses

Where things have changed significantly is in the sanctions arena. Rubio’s State Department has imposed even more sanctions on the struggling island nation, which is almost certainly exacerbating the electricity shortages that are piling significant stress on the population.

In a new low for US foreign policy, the Trump administration has been trying to prevent some of the world’s poorest countries from availing of the medical assistance provided, often free of charge, by Cuba’s medical missions. From our March 18 post, Caribbean Countries Blast US Plans to Sanction Cuban Medical Missions Around the World:

On February 25, Rubio’s State Department announced visa restrictions for both government officials in Cuba as well as any other officials in the world who are found to be “complicit” in the island nation’s overseas medical assistance programs. The sanctions would extend to “current and former” officials and the “immediate family of such individuals,” and could also include trade restrictions for the countries involved.

In essence, the US government is accusing Cuba of using forced labour, even likening overseas Cuban medical personnel to slaves. If this latest sanctions gambit is successful, it will have crippling effects on a Cuban economy that has been cut out of the US-dominated financial system for years and is now grappling with nationwide power outages. It will also hurt dozens of the world’s poorest countries that depend upon Cuban medical missions precisely at a time when many of them are facing the prospect of looming debt crises.

One such country is Jamaica, which Rubio visited a couple of days ago. At a press conference alongside the nation’s prime minister, Andrew Holness, Rubio tried to present his case against Cuba’s medical missions. Minutes later, Holness gave Rubio a schooling on the reality of Cuba’s medical missions. He said that the Cuban doctors and nurses “have been incredibly helpful”, helping to fill “a deficit in health personnel” in Jamaica, primarily resulting from the migration of Jamaican nurses and doctors to “other countries”.

¡QUEDO EN 4 BLOQUES!

🇯🇲Marco Rubio fue a Jamaica a hablar mal de médicos cubanos y el Primer Ministro de ese país, Andrew Holness, lo desmintió.

🗣️ "Los médicos cubanos en Jamaica han sido de gran ayuda para nosotros". pic.twitter.com/YnVGcqlFq7

— Adelso Carvajal (@adelso_car) October 29, 2025

The Most Powerful Sec State Since Kissinger?

As was clear from day one, Trump’s appointment of Rubio as secretary of state and his acting national security advisor, making Rubio arguably the most powerful sec state since Henry Kissinger, could only bode ill for Latin America. In an article cross-posted here, Medea Benjamin and Nicholas Davies warned that “Rubio’s disdain for his ancestral home in Cuba has served him so well as an American politician that he has extended it to the rest of Latin America”:

He has sided with extreme right-wing politicians like Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Javier Milei in Argentina, and rails against progressive ones, from Brazil’s Ignacio Lula da Silva to Mexico’s popular former President Lopez Obrador, whom he called “an apologist for tyranny” for supporting other leftist governments.

In Venezuela, he has promoted brutal sanctions and regime change plots to topple the government of Nicolas Maduro. In 2019 he was one of the architects of Trump’s failed policy of recognizing opposition figure Juan Guaido as president. He has also advocated for sanctions and regime change in Nicaragua.

In March 2023, Rubio urged President Biden to impose sanctions on Bolivia for prosecuting  leaders of a 2019 U.S.-backed coup that led to massacres that killed at least 21 people.

The appointment of Rubio has also been a nail — hopefully not the last one — in the coffin for any hopes of peace in Ukraine or the Middle East.

In Latin America, Rubio is not just attacking left-leaning governments; he is also pressuring courts in the region to lay off former right-wing leaders facing serious criminal charges. They include Bolsonaro, who in September was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for plotting a coup against the Lula government. As readers may recall, the prosecution of Bolsonaro was the main reason cited for Trump’s imposition of 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods.

Rubio’s response:

The political persecutions by sanctioned human rights abuser Alexandre de Moraes continue, as he and others on Brazil's supreme court have unjustly ruled to imprison former President Jair Bolsonaro.

The United States will respond accordingly to this witch hunt.

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) September 11, 2025

In a recent panel discussion on CNN Brazil, the former Brazilian ambassador to the US, Rubens Barbosa (1999-2004), said the diplomatic pressure to release Bolsonaro had not come from the White House but rather from Rubio himself. Now that the US is in desperate need of new stocks of rare earth minerals, of which Brazil is the world’s second largest supplier, the issue of Bolsonaro’s imprisonment is now moot.

Even more contentious is the way in which Rubio has meddled in Colombia’s legal system to protect former President Alvaro Uribe Vélez, who was recently found guilty on charges of fraud and witness tampering and sentenced to 12 years’ house arrest. It was the first time in Colombia’s history that a former head of state had been criminally convicted.

In July, Rubio said the ruling against Uribe constituted a “political attack” by “radicalised” judges. In response, 17 US congressmen and women signed a letter calling on Rubio to stop meddling  in the legal case against Uribe, arguing that his statement “is contrary to the principles of the rule of law, sovereignty and judicial independence.”

Former Colombian President Uribe’s only crime has been to tirelessly fight and defend his homeland. The weaponization of Colombia’s judicial branch by radical judges has now set a worrisome precedent.

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) July 28, 2025

But Rubio got what he — and Colombia’s right-wing opposition — wanted. On October 22, the Supreme Court in Bogota overturned the conviction against Uribe, acquitting him of all charges of bribery and procedural fraud.

A Genuine Narco-President

Uribe is far and away Colombia’s most powerful political figure. He was the first president to be re-elected in 100 years after he passed a constitutional reform allowing his re-election. He also has documented ties to drug traffickers. According to a 1991 US Defense Intelligence Agency report that was declassified in 2004, Uribe was a “close personal friend of Pablo Escobar” and was “dedicated to collaboration with the Medellín [drug] cartel at high government levels.” 

Uribe has been accused not just of collaborating with the Medellin drug cartel but also of fostering the growth of illegal paramilitary groups, which were responsible for most of the human rights abuses of the past three decades. Again, from the US National Security Archive:

In a series of declarations during the past year, three former employees of “La Carolina” ranch in Yarumal, Colombia, said that the Uribe family, and especially the former president’s brother, Santiago Uribe, had a close and friendly relationship with the presumed leader of the “Doce Apóstoles” (Twelve Apostles), a death squad that prosecutors say targeted petty criminals, drug addicts and the presumed supporters of insurgent groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).

There has long been a perception in Colombia that Álvaro Uribe’s policies, first as governor of Antioquia and later as president, helped to foster the growth of illegal paramilitaries, which are responsible for most of the human rights abuses committed in recent decades. As governor of Antioquia, Uribe was one of the most prominent proponents of state-sponsored civil militia groups known as “Convivir,” some of which were fronts for, or worked in concert with, Colombia’s notorious paramilitary army, the United Self-defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

Same Old, Same Old

So, in sum, the US government has imposed economic sanctions on Colombia’s current president and his family on the spurious claim that he is a drug trafficker, without presenting a shred of evidence, while doing everything it can to spring from (home) prison a former Colombian president whom the DIA itself suspected was a drug trafficker, and whose ranch formerly served as the operational base for a paramilitary death squad.

That, I guess, is how things roll when Marco Rubio is in charge of US foreign policy while at the same time advising President Trump on national security matters. However, as John Mearsheimer points out in his latest interview with Judge Napolitano, which, as always, is worth a watch, this is really not so different from how things have always been between the US and Latin America — at least since the early 1900s:

Since the beginning of the 20th century the United States has been allergic to having a government in Latin America — South or Central America — that is left leaning. And any time we see a government that is left leaning in Latin America, we almost always put our gun sights on it…

We’ve been doing this long before Marco Rubio was born. This basic pattern of intervention in Latin America has a rich tradition, really going back to the early 1900s. I think Rubio exacerbates the situation. He really hates the regime in Cuba, he’d love to topple that regime, and I think it is due in part to the fact he’s a Cuban-American, and he views Venezuela and Cuba as birds of a feather.

That means he’s perfectly happy going after Venezuela but that doesn’t means he’s going to forget Cuba… But I think, to be honest, if Rubio disappeared from the scene, we’d still be pursuing this foolish policy against Venezuela.

Not only that, but there will also be legions of Latin American’s comprador class — people like Maria Corina Machado, Javier Milei, Jair Bolsonaro and Daniel Noboa — just begging to do the US’ bidding. Some things never change.