Dr. Rebecca Bill Chavez, president and CEO of the Inter-American Dialogue, spoke with CNN This Morning with Audie Cornish to discuss Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s trip to the Caribbean.
COMMENTS FROM CHAVEZ:
“I’m so glad that we’re paying attention to the Caribbean—it’s so often overlooked. People call it the ‘third border,’ and I think this is an opportunity to create a positive, affirmative agenda with the Caribbean in recognition of how important the region is to U.S. national interests.”
“We often frame the migration crisis as a U.S. southern border issue, but it’s really a hemisphere-wide crisis.”
“Secretary Rubio’s trip to the region is an opportunity to create a positive agenda with the countries of the Caribbean. We’ve just seen their unity when the CARICOM—nations of the Caribbean community—banded together to elect the new secretary general of the Organization of American States, Albert Ramdin. It’s the first time we have a representative of the Caribbean as secretary general of the OAS. We see that there’s a lot of unity in the Caribbean, and this is something that the U.S. should be encouraging. Regional integration is a good thing.”
“Over the past two decades, China has expanded its influence across Latin America and the Caribbean… Historically, the U.S. approach has been to tell these nations to choose between the U.S. and China without offering an attractive alternative.”
“What I hope—and what I think is necessary for U.S. interests—is that Rubio makes it clear that the U.S. is a viable alternative by providing development financing, infrastructure, and a reliable partnership.”
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