“They don’t interest us as a trading partner”
“There’ll be consequences for countries who don’t accept the deportees,” warns Mauricio Claver-Carone, US Special Envoy to Latin America.
By Ivan Olivares (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – US Special Envoy to Latin America Mauricio Claver-Carone declared that the United States isn’t interested in having Nicaragua as a trading partner. As such, he stated that they were seeking “options” with their allies in the region to expel the country from CAFTA-DR [Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement], a treaty that has been in force since 2004.
That’s absurd, it’s absurd,” asserted Claver-Carone, while explaining that his country’s strategy is to work with other regional US allies on how to remove Nicaragua from this treaty without affecting the rest of the countries. Echoing the rhetoric of President Donald Trump, the special envoy said: “that treaty was negotiated and enacted very poorly.”
He added: “obviously, Nicaragua doesn’t interest the United States as a trading partner,” especially a Nicaragua governed by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president Rosario Murillo. Given that, they’re analyzing with their allies how to exclude Nicaragua in a way that doesn’t harm or cause collateral damage to those allies.
“That’s a very important matter,” he repeated.
The newly-appointed USofficial made these remarks at a press conference where he gave details of the trip that Cuban-American Marco Rubio, now US Secretary of State, will make to Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, all members of CAFTA. Rubio is not planning to visit either Nicaragua or Honduras.
In discussing Rubio’s visit to the region, Claver-Carone, a former president of the Inter-American Development Bank, noted: “obviously the topic of Nicaragua is of concern to us.” He reiterated that CAFTA is very important, because Nicaragua continues benefiting from the free trade agreement.
Consequences of leaving CAFTA
Juan Sebastian Chamorro, banished Nicaraguan economist and member of the opposition, posted on social media: “It’s no longer a matter of whether or not Nicaragua is going to be in the treaty.” Instead, Secretary Rubio is going to Central America to speak with the other members, in order to see that this exit doesn’t affect the other Central American members.
He recalled: “I’ve reiterated many times the impact that a change in United States trade policies would have on the Nicaraguan economy, because it puts at risk the jobs of hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans.”
“If such a change occurs, the only ones responsible are Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo… because for three years now, this regime has been utilizing migration as a political arm against the United States,” Chamorro stressed.
If the authoritarian rulers of the regime provoke this exclusion, exports will plunge, along with employment, tax revenues, and even income into INSS, the Nicaraguan Social Security system. Along those lines, several experts told Confidencial that being excluded from the CAFTA agreement would cost Nicaragua over 1.5 billion dollars annually.
Up until September 2024, Nicaraguan exports to the United States amounted to US $1.23 billion dollars, representing 38.4% of Nicaragua’s total export income of US $3.206 billion dollars up until that point. This data came from the “Third trimester 2024 Exterior Trade Report,” published by Nicaragua’s Central Bank. The DR-CAFTA treaty offers quotas, preferences, and tariff advantages, which have greatly benefited Nicaraguan exporters.
Countries must accept their deportees
The topic of immigration will dominate the agenda of Secretary Rubio in the region, as this is one of the key priorities of President Trump, together with his threat of “recovering” the Panama Canal. Claver-Carone declared: “President Trump has made it very clear that all of the world’s countries – including Nicaragua – must accept their citizens. It’s not an option.”
His argument is that countries must assume responsibility for their citizens. “Obviously, there’ll be consequences for countries that decide not to admit them,” as was recently seen in a US confrontation with Colombia.
According to a communique from the US State Department, Secretary of State Rubio is planning to meet with the leaders of five countries between February 1 and 6, speaking mainly about immigration, in an attempt to “stop the large-scale illegal immigration.” Last week, the controversial raids and express deportations of migrants had already begun in several cities of the United States.
Rubio won’t be stopping in either Nicaragua or Honduras, although aspiring migrants from all over the world must pass through these countries on their way from South America to the United States. In addition, both countries have historically had their own emigrant population. Over a million Hondurans and Nicaraguans are currently living in the United States, both legally and illegally.
Since his time as a Senator, Rubio has emphatically opposed Daniel Ortega, who has been in power since 2007. He has accused him of having “bloodstained hands,” and called his government “a criminal dictatorship that tortures political prisoners.”
In addition, the current Secretary of State has criticized Ortega’s attacks on the opposition. At the time of the 2018 April Rebellion, he had asked the Organization of American States to mount an investigation of the violence exercised by forces loyal to Ortega, which left 352 people dead.
The Nicaraguan opposition applauded the designation of Rubio as Secretary of State, highlighting that he could be a key figure in the struggle against the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship. “Marco Rubio knows dictators, knows how they operate, knows that lukewarm measures have no effect, but that you must work with force, show force to generate changes. Obviously, the dictators of Venezuela, Cuba, and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua must be extremely worried,” commented Juan Sebastian Chamorro.
The statement mentioned above also stated that in his bilateral meetings with the five presidents Rubio will address how to “fight against the scourge of transnational criminal organizations and drug traffickers, (and) counteracting China.”
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and Translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
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