Western Hemisphere Security

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will make a one‑day trip Wednesday to St. Kitts and Nevis to attend a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) summit, where he is tasked with reasserting the Trump administration’s Western Hemisphere priorities just weeks after the Jan. 3 U.S. military operation that captured and removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The State Department says Rubio will hold group and bilateral meetings focused on regional security, stability, trade and economic growth, and will 'reaffirm the United States’ commitment' to working with CARICOM states. Rubio and Trump have been explicitly framing their hemispheric strategy as a modern Monroe Doctrine—dubbed by Trump the 'Donroe Doctrine'—built around Maduro’s ouster, lethal strikes on alleged drug‑running vessels, seizures of sanctioned oil tankers and a tightened Cuba embargo, moves that have alarmed some regional governments even as smaller states quietly welcome U.S. backing. The trip comes as global attention shifts to a major U.S. military buildup around Iran and Trump’s threats to launch strikes there, raising the risk that Caribbean and Latin American concerns get sidelined unless Rubio keeps them on the agenda. For U.S. readers, the visit is an early test of how Washington balances a potential Middle East conflict with its self‑proclaimed primacy in 'America’s backyard,' and how much appetite CARICOM leaders have for a security agenda that mixes anti‑drug, anti‑migration operations with aggressive U.S. use of force.