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Marco Rubio’s Comically Tragic Trip to Latin America
The Secretary of State spent much of his time striking deals with Latin American leaders who agreed to do things they were already doing
After normalizing relations with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and granting Chevron a six-month license extension to import Venezuelan oil, the White House sent Secretary of State Marco Rubio on a tour of Latin America. The goal was to secure deals to send migrants from the United States to third countries using a “do as we say or there will be consequences” approach netting little results and instead creating more ire for the administration.
Let’s start with the most recent news and work backward.
On Thursday, Rubio posted an image on X (formerly Twitter) claiming to have seized a plane from Maduro. The problem is that it appears to be the same plane the Biden administration had already seized in early September. On the same day, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino denied a claim made by Rubio saying his country had reached a deal allowing U.S. warships to transit the Panama Canal for free. This came days after Rubio was in Panama and its president shut down claims made by President Donald Trump about China controlling the canal.
