{"id":83832,"date":"2026-02-26T14:22:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T20:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/?p=83832"},"modified":"2026-02-26T14:22:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T20:22:30","slug":"rubio-defends-u-s-removal-of-maduro-at-caricom-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/rubio-defends-u-s-removal-of-maduro-at-caricom-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio Defends U.S. Removal of Maduro at CARICOM Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a> strongly defended Washington\u2019s military operation to remove Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, telling Caribbean leaders on Wednesday that both Venezuela and the wider region are \u201cbetter off\u201d as a result.<\/p>\n

Rubio made the remarks during a closed-door session with leaders of the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM), who are meeting in St. Kitts and Nevis for their annual summit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIrrespective of how some of you may have individually felt about our operations and our policy toward Venezuela,\u201d Rubio said, according to a transcript released by the U.S. State Department, \u201cVenezuela is better off today than it was eight weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several Caribbean governments had raised concerns about the legality of Maduro\u2019s capture last month and the broader implications for regional sovereignty. Rubio dismissed those concerns, arguing that since Maduro\u2019s removal, and the effective U.S. takeover of Venezuela\u2019s oil sector, interim authorities have made \u201csubstantial\u201d progress.<\/p>\n

\"Sponsored<\/a>

Sponsored by RF&G<\/p><\/div>\n

He claimed developments in the past two months included steps that \u201ceight or nine weeks ago would have been unimaginable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The operation was praised a day earlier by U.S. President Donald Trump during his State of the Union address, calling it \u201can absolutely colossal victory for the security of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar<\/a> publicly supported U.S. military operations in the southern Caribbean Sea and confirmed her talks with Rubio covered Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela.<\/p>\n

When asked whether recent U.S. strikes on suspected drug boats constituted extrajudicial killings, she said her government\u2019s legal advice indicated they were not.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew, who chairs CARICOM, warned that the region stands at a \u201cdecisive hour\u201d as the global order shifts.<\/p>\n

Jamaica\u2019s Prime Minister Andrew Holness highlighted concerns about Cuba\u2019s worsening humanitarian crisis, cautioning that prolonged instability there could impact migration, security and economic stability across the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

 <\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio strongly defended Washington\u2019s military operation to remove Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, telling Caribbean leaders on Wednesday that both Venezuela and the wider region are \u201cbetter off\u201d as a result. Rubio made the remarks during a closed-door session with leaders […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":83845,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[484,444,475,523],"tags":[11051],"class_list":["post-83832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-latest-news","category-news","category-regional-international","tag-rubio-defends-u-s-removal-of-maduro-at-caricom-summit"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83832"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83846,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83832\/revisions\/83846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}