Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly and vp of coverage at Americas Society/Council of the Americas, spoke with Zain Asher of NCS International about the present state of U.S.-Cuba relations, within the context of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s attendance on the fiftieth Regular Meeting of the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government in St. Kitts.
Winter began the interview by noting that whereas individuals may be shocked to see Secretary of State Rubio at a Caribbean summit amid world tensions, the transfer indicators that Cuba is a high precedence for the administration. Following the current U.S. navy motion to seize Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, Winter steered {that a} sense of urgency now surrounds Havana.
“The Trump administration seems to have its sights set on some kind of transition there, whether it’s a formal regime change or an arrangement similar to the one in Venezuela,” mentioned Winter. “We’ll see whether the Cuban government is willing to negotiate some kind of opening, whether it be a change in economic policies or perhaps a longer-term path to democracy or at least a more representative government.”
Winter additionally defined {that a} second main driver for Rubio’s go to was to affect Caribbean nations’ ties with China, because the Asian nation’s financial affect within the Western Hemisphere will increase. “The red line that the Trump administration is trying to draw is Chinese investment in strategic assets, such as ports, that the Trump administration believes could be damaging to the national security of the United States,” he mentioned.
Finally, the professional additionally touched on the function of different Latin American international locations in U.S.-Cuba relations, particularly Mexico. Winter highlighted that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum appears to have decided by “ceasing oil shipments to Cuba” provided that “no other country is as vulnerable to U.S. pressure as Mexico is because it sends more than 80 percent of its exports north to the United States.”