Rubio ignores Brazil on diplomatic tour of South America

According to information from the State Department, Rubio will discuss during the visit US support for Colombia’s recovery after the earthquake that hit the western region of the country on August 10, increased cooperation against narco-terrorism and “the benefits of closer trade relations” with these countries.

Although the US government has not officially confirmed further details about the trip, Colombian media outlets reported that Rubio will meet with Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla. This will also be the first visit by the head of American diplomacy to Peru since conservative Keiko Fujimori took power at the end of July.

The Secretary of State’s visit takes place at a time when Washington’s cooperation with Latin America is becoming increasingly closer, coinciding with the electoral victories, last year, of several governments ideologically aligned with Donald Trump’s administration.

Security is one of the areas in which the White House has been successful in strengthening cooperation at the regional level and it is expected to be one of the topics addressed by Rubio during his visit to Colombia, where the commander of the US Southern Command (Southcom), Francis Donovan, was already at the end of August.

Furthermore, following De la Espriella’s inauguration as president, Colombia announced its membership in the Coalition Against the Cartels of the Americas (A3C), a military and operational alliance launched by the Trump administration to jointly combat drug trafficking and organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The fight against organized crime will probably also be discussed by Rubio and Noboa during the Secretary of State’s visit to Ecuador, the second in just a year, a period in which Quito and Washington have already announced the execution of two joint operations to combat drug trafficking in the Andean country.

Rubio has already declared that he considers Lula’s government “not friendly”

The fact that Brazil is outside Marco Rubio’s travel route is not surprising.

This is because the American Secretary of State has already declared that he considers Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government “not friendly” and accused the PT member of putting his “ego” above Brazilian interests in the negotiations for the new American tariff.

In turn, the Brazilian government official reciprocated the criticism, saying that Rubio would be a “bolsonarista” who “doesn’t like Brazil and Latin America”.