By Caribbean News Global 
WASHINGTON, USA – The following is extracted from a special briefing by Tammy Bruce, Department Spokesperson Mauricio Claver-Caron, US Special Envoy for Latin America via teleconference, March 25, 2025.
On-the-Record Briefing
Bruce: … As a US senator and lifelong resident of South Florida, secretary Rubio has deep ties to the Caribbean and Latin American communities in the United States – ties that reflect the close historic relationships our nation has cultivated with our regional neighbours. And as announced yesterday, the Secretary now will embark on his second trip to the region, just two months after president Trump took the oath of office.
On Wednesday and Thursday, he will travel to Jamaica, Guyana, and Suriname. And while in Jamaica, the secretary will also meet bilaterally with heads of state from Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti. The United States, of course, we enjoy strong, enduring partnerships across the Caribbean. When the Caribbean prospers, the United States prospers. Our people-to-people ties are also vital. You see that in the choices that the secretary makes in his choices about again travelling, the nature of what diplomacy really means. Millions of Americans trace their roots to the Caribbean, enriching our society in countless ways. Likewise, hundreds of thousands of US citizens live in Caribbean nations, deepening those ties every day.
We also, of course, collaborate closely on security, particularly to disrupt narcotics and firearms trafficking and combatting transnational organized crime through efforts like the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative. And together we will enhance shared economic prosperity and strengthen energy security as well. We will also address illegal immigration, seek to dismantle transnational criminal networks, and push back against malign influences that threaten the stability of our hemisphere.
Through the great leadership of secretary Rubio, our enduring partnerships will strengthen, protect, and bring prosperity to our region. And we’ve already seen the results of that with all of his trips and the commitment he has made in a variety of regions, which will only increase and create even – delivering more dividends for our country but also for the world itself.
So, I look forward to helping him advance these goals while on this trip. It’s been a very exciting time, and it’s great to work with him in this framework because you get to see the real nature of his commitment to his job, to this country, and to the future for our nation but also for the rest of the world.
Mauricio Claver-Caron: … One of the priorities that he also wanted to do was to go to the Caribbean, the Caribbean many times referred to as our third border. It is indeed our third border, but in some cases, it is actually our first border when you start considering the commercial maritime shipping lanes. Commercially, it’s in so many ways our first border. It’s the border, obviously, of the secretary’s home state of Florida, but more importantly of the president’s home state of Florida and my home state of Florida. So obviously, we’re all very familiar with the opportunities and the challenges that that third border, the Caribbean, our neighbours, represent.
I think this trip is symbolic of those opportunities. In the preview with a lot of these Caribbean leaders in regards to the secretary’s trip, I think the focus that the Secretary wanted to hone in on is basically the big opportunity and the challenge, right, and focusing in on one opportunity and one challenge. It’s a big opportunity, and again, it’s a big challenge.
The big opportunity holistically: energy security. Like, we are in a historic moment in the Caribbean for energy security, which has been the Achilles heel of the Caribbean for so long and its economic development with disproportionately high electricity and energy prices. Obviously, the fact that they are all dependent importers, and supply issues in that regards. That’s also led to a long history of extortive practices from PetroCaribe, Venezuela that we’ve seen historically. All of that has ended and there is a time to turn the page, which is one of the focus on these trips – the historic opportunity for energy security in the Caribbean, which will improve people’s lives, will improve also the opportunities and the relationship with the United States and what that means, and obviously, will strengthen our neighbours, which we seek.
The challenge, obviously, is Haiti. And obviously, we all know and we share the deep commitment to tackling this challenge in Haiti. The secretary is obviously very familiar with the challenges posed there. It’s an intricate part of the community that the secretary comes from, and obviously, something we’ve been dealing with for a long time; and look to work with our Caribbean neighbours in handling that particular challenge in this regard.
In so doing, obviously, the trip was very thematically put together to be able to address some of these challenges. The first stop, as Tammy mentioned, is obviously going to be Jamaica. Jamaica is probably our most like-minded partner in the Caribbean, also a huge opportunity in regards to not only the commercial shipping lanes that all go through Jamaica, which is obviously key to our security and our maritime security and our commercial shipping lane security, but also as regards narcotics trafficking.
So, obviously, in combatting these transnational criminal organizations is very key in Jamaica, and the partnership with Jamaica there has been extraordinary, but also arms trafficking and arms trafficking to Haiti, which is exacerbated, obviously – which is what feeds the gang violence in Haiti. So, Jamaica is a key partner from a security perspective in regards to dealing with counternarcotics, in regards to dealing with arms trafficking, and in deepening that coordination will help not only improve the security and safety of Americans but also in dealing with this shared challenge that we have in Haiti.
From a commercial side as well, Jamaica being a key partner in so maintaining those maritime routes that come – the routes that come from obviously the Panama Canal but also in the upward flows that come through the region. We want to strengthen that. Obviously, this has been a discussion with Jamaica for a long time. The government, prime minister Holness, has been a great ally, and has made great strides in dealing with the issues of crime in Jamaica. Obviously, the economic fiscal management of Jamaica has been one of the bright spots not only in the Caribbean but in the entire region in that regards, and helping them deal with that criminality, et cetera, is going to increase as well – the opportunities and the development of perhaps one of our greatest allies in the Caribbean there in Jamaica.
While they’re in Jamaica, the secretary is also going to meet and will also have bilaterals with Haiti obviously to deal with this huge challenge that we all face in dealing with the gang violence. In Haiti, to ensure that the Haitian National Police and the provisional government have the support they need in order to be able to tackle the violence of these gangs, which, at the end of the day, is important for the security not only of the United States but also of the entire Caribbean.
We’ll also meet with Barbados. Barbados currently heads CARICOM, so that’s – this is where those kind of joint topics and issues of energy security in Haiti is a great opportunity to meet that, even though we’re deeply committed to the bilateral relationship with each of these Caribbean nations. There’s a dozen and it’s a lot of work, but we’re deeply committed to the bilateral relationship with each of these islands. But we look forward to with the leadership of Barbados and CARICOM, working on some of these broader, cohesive issues.
And with Trinidad, which has been an energy leader in the region, obviously it is going through its own development as it seeks to revitalize its natural gas opportunities and is going through that modernization as some of the older fields and opportunities there dry up and they’re looking for the new ones. There, along with a lot of the challenges posed with Venezuela, we’re deeply committed to working with Trinidad to figuring out how to re-energize that – those natural gas opportunities and ensure that its economy continues to move forward despite the challenges presented with Venezuela and otherwise.
From there, the secretary will go to Guyana. Guyana is poised this year to become the largest per capita oil producer in the world, only – first two – is going to surpass Qatar and Kuwait. This is a huge kind of like a story of the last five years. I mean, it’s probably one of the greatest stories of the last five years. It’s seen as some of the greatest offshore opportunities in the world.
The security of Guyana is a key priority for us in the same way that we have been working with countries in the Gulf states to ensure the security cooperation from the regional threats there, Iran, et cetera, we want to work with Guyana in order to ensure the security cooperation there and its guarantees on its security. We’ve seen the threats from Venezuela. We’ve seen the approaches towards Exxon facilities. Obviously, that’s unacceptable and we want to work together to ensure binding – and find an agreement towards binding security cooperation.
That’s a win-win for both Guyana and the United States, and I think that’s going to be a big part of the Secretary’s conversations while he’s there. The fact that these oil developments and perhaps, as has been described, as the greatest offshore opportunity in the world today, and with an administration that doesn’t punish countries for that development. We saw in the previous administration, in the Biden administration, that countries like Guyana were asked to almost halt their development and progress in favor of renewables. No, we want to see Guyana succeed. We want to see it develop. We believe renewables are complementary in that regards and are not a substitute. o, we want to support Guyana in this development but protect it also from the threats being posed.
And from there, he’ll make a short stop to Suriname, which is shortly behind Guyana in regards to that huge opportunity in its energy development. Again, together with Guyana and Suriname, which – and obviously the history of Trinidad with natural gas – this is an opportunity that countries from the CARICOM community, from the region are going to be able to – be able to support each other, to be able to create an energy security framework, which has already changed the geopolitics of the region. If we think back to the first Trump administration, we were dealing with the charges of PetroCaribe, with the challenges of the corruption, the endemic corruption that PetroCaribe and Venezuela were bringing to the islands of the region, the extortion that they were bringing to the region.
The fact that now their own countries – Guyana, Suriname – are able to have and really surpass Venezuela in its oil production and be able to work with its neighbours there in the region is a huge opportunity for the Caribbean, along with natural gas, microgrids, et cetera, to really, really finally try to put an end to that huge Achilles’ heel to its economic development and security. That’s the goal, that’s the priority. And that’ll be where a lot of our conversations will be focused, and the secretary’s conversation will be focused during this trip.
The Cuban doctors situation
CLAVER-CARONE: … It’s not just the Caribbean. Obviously, the Caribbean has really made this – it’s an important issue, because they’re present in the Caribbean, it’s historic and it’s prolonged; but at the end of the day that have been trafficked throughout the world in violation of International Labor Organization accords of treatment, where they have their salaries and their passports hijacked by the Cuban Government during their stay. And this is not an issue about, like, the quality of Cuban doctors. The quality of Cuban doctors and the work they’ve done in the Caribbean, in Haiti, et cetera, is great; it’s extraordinary. And at the end of the day, we have to recognize that, and we want to recognize that.
What we are asking is that they not support human trafficking, that they support – and I know that there’s been some efforts, particularly starting with Barbados, in order to directly pay these Cuban doctors so that they are – have a certain amount of freedom of movement and freedom of their professional practice, et cetera. I mean, we understand, obviously, how the Cuban regime works in maintaining control over these individuals. But we want to basically have a united voice against indentured servitude, against human trafficking, in favour of International Labor Organization standards, global standards and international standards for the treatment of workers, regardless of what type they are.
So, we’re going to continue to take a strong stand against human trafficking, as we have and President Trump has had across – across the spectrum. In this regards, we feel that Cuban doctors and the trafficking of them falls within that category. And we look forward to working with mechanisms with our Caribbean neighbours to ensure that they’re able to hire directly the doctors, that they feel like doing so on their free will and with their free movement, and their freedom of practice and expression in that regards. And that’s an important conversation that will be had and has begun and surely will be raised for the secretary.
Citizenship by investment – CBI
That’s been a longstanding concern we have seen, obviously, in some of these islands in the Caribbean a lot of movement from not only Chinese nationals but Iranian nationals and other countries that affect not only the national security of the United States but, frankly, that affect the security of these islands. That’ll be also an issue for conversation. We want to make sure – like, our goal here is not to impede the development of these islands. Like, we want these islands to be able to have the opportunities. Again, when you talk about inflationary pressures, the biggest inflationary pressure in the Caribbean is energy, energy costs. So that’s why we’re holistically focused on electricity, on energy costs, on energy security, in order to be able to spread it. Because that then spills over into tourism, into tourism development, et cetera.
So where we want to be is in a place where some of these islands don’t find these citizenship-by-investment programs which attract, unfortunately, nefarious actors from China, Iran, and other countries into the Americas, which then becomes a security challenge for all of us – that we don’t want that to become – CBI should not be a major part of these smaller islands’ GDP.
That’s not the goal. And I think that if we work towards increasing the space and reducing some of the pressures to increase their tourism development and other factors through energy – increase energy supply, increase energy distribution, lower electricity prices, I think at the end of the day all of those are pluses there for these countries not to have to rely on these CBI programs.
Venezuelan exports to islands in the Caribbean
… What we seek, frankly – and I think that we have a great opportunity here – is, in regards to energy security and why the Secretary’s focused on his – this trip to Guyana and Suriname, is really, like, these countries aren’t going to be dependent anymore. It’s really for the – for these countries in the Caribbean to not have to be dependent on the Venezuelan oil and then the schemes and extortion that came from that, from PetroCaribe, et cetera, in the past. To be able to have Caribbean countries, their own CARICOM brethren, right, to be able to help create that energy security that those oil – those needs were seen by other countries outside, including the Dominican Republic, also looking to create deals with Guyana in regards to the refining, et cetera, of oil for their energy needs, which has also been an Achilles for the Dominican Republic.
So, this is really, truly a unique historic opportunity for energy security in the Caribbean. We’re deeply committed to that. The fact that these CARICOM nations, that Guyana and Suriname, and then obviously on the natural gas front kind of in the revitalization of however we can help in Trinidad in that regards, are really unique opportunities there. And that’s what we really need to be focused on, because we don’t want to have a rekindling of the past and of all the troubles and issues that the dependency on Venezuela brought to the islands of the Caribbean.
… The fact that today, in regard – in these encroachments by Venezuela and the Venezuelan government on the sovereignty and the territorial sovereignty of Guyana, the fact that the Caribbean stands in one voice with its Caribbean partner, with its Caribbean – fellow Caribbean nation in Guyana in this regard against those threats from Venezuela, like, that’s pretty extraordinary. The world has changed quite a bit in that regards, and that’s a great opportunity, and obviously we want to make sure that Guyana has the security necessary to be able to continue its historic path in the development of its energy industry so that we can also help its Caribbean partners be able to also benefit from that.
- On-the-Record Briefing
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