Secretary of State Marco Rubio has set off on his first international trip. Rubio is scheduled to visit El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic.
His trip comes as President Trump has triggered two major diplomatic spats in the region. First suggesting the United States should retake the Panama canal and then by launching a brief trade war with Colombia over immigration.
Here are three things to know about Secretary Rubio's first foreign trip
Latin America has rarely been front and center
It is rare for an American secretary of state to begin their travels by going to Latin America. Back in 2001, Colin Powell, opened his tenure by traveling to Mexico to accompany President George W. Bush for a meeting with the Mexican president. It was a one day trip and Powell quickly moved on to the Middle East.
To find a secretary of state who began their term with a whirlwind tour of Latin America like Rubio is doing, you'd have to look back a century when in 1912, Philander Chase Knox traveled to Panama and then spent a month crisscrossing Latin America — from Nicaragua to Venezuela.
"This is a really interesting moment for US relations with Latin America," said Benjamin Gedan, of the Wilson Center previewing Rubio's trip. "Threats of tariffs against Mexico, threats of tariffs against Colombia have all raised questions about what the nature of inter-American relations will be over the next four years, and we'll get some important signals from what Secretary Rubio says publicly and privately."
This trip is about Latin America, but really about China
Speaking to reporters, Rubio paused on President Trump's threats to retake the Panama Canal.
"This is not a joke," Rubio said, adding he's concerned that Chinese companies now control major ports at the entry and exit to the canal. Rubio said in case of conflict, Chinese companies could have the "ability to turn the canal into a choke point."
Leland Lazarus, who studies China's role in Latin America at Florida International University, says Rubio will have his work cut out, because for some Latin American countries China has become a major trading partner. Indeed, China is now the No. 1 trading partner for South America.
"I think he's got to provide actual alternatives and not just tell countries China is bad," Lazarus told NPR. "You can't do business with China because that is just not feasible for many countries in the region."
As Cuban-American, Rubio represents a first, but he's in line with a mainstream American foreign policy
Rubio is the first Latino secretary of state. He focused much of his attention as a senator on Latin America, which is rare for a secretary of state. But Alexander Aviña, who teaches Latin American history at Arizona State University, says his views are also very much in line with those who have come before him.
"In terms of policy, there's going to be more continuity than change," Aviña told NPR.
For example, Rubio rails against authoritarianism and socialism when it comes to Cuba and Venezuela, but his first foreign trip will include a stop to El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele has become a rising authoritarian figure in Latin America .
That, says Aviña, is in line with one of the central contradictions of American foreign policy in Latin America.
"You can target certain countries as kind of convenient enemies," he said. "But then you also have to work with inconvenient allies to help project and maintain U.S. geopolitical power or influence in the region."
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