The New Yorker - USA (2019-09-23)

22 THENEWYORKER,SEPTEMBER23, 2019

been preparing to unveil its Cuba policy,
the situation in Caracas had exploded.
“People were marching in the streets by
the millions, and on our end there was
no strategy,” one White House official
told me. Officials at the N.S.C. started
meeting with the State Department,
and the Administration decided to im­
pose a series of escalating sanctions in
response to actions taken by Maduro.
Later that month, Administration of­
ficials noticed a pattern. Every time they
met with Rubio or his aides to share news
about the developing Venezuela policy,
the senator found some way to publicly
disclose it in advance of a White House
announcement. On May 17th, he ap­
peared on the Senate floor with, he said,
“an update and a suggestion, a request of
the Administration about a step that we
can take.” According to a White House
official involved in the policy, Rubio had
been informed that the Administration
planned to sanction eight members of
the Venezuelan Supreme Court, includ­
ing the chief judge, the next day. He de­
livered the speech to make it look as if

he were the one behind it. “He was be­

ginning to be seen as the godfather of

Latin­American issues,” another White

House official told me. In July, after Ma­

duro held a sham election for the con­

stituent assembly, Rubio preëmpted an­

other White House announcement of

sanctions, this time against Maduro

himself. Having been told that sanctions

were imminent, Rubio called for them

in an official statement, voicing his confi­

dence that “Trump will respond swiftly

and decisively.” Trump was enraged, the

official told me, but he and Rubio con­

tinued to “play from the same sheet of

music.” They needed each other.

Announcing the latest sanctions, H. R.

McMaster, the national­security adviser,

said, “Maduro is not just a bad leader.

He is now a dictator.” Many Democrats,

especially those in South Florida, con­

curred, and routinely assailed Maduro

themselves. “There was almost no sun­

light between the South Florida Dem­

ocrats and the Trump Administration

on the Venezuela question,” a senior Sen­

ate aide told me. But Trump and the

Florida Republican delegation made sure

that Democrats were cut out of conver­

sations about Venezuelan policy. (Through

a spokesperson, Rubio, who in the Sen­

ate has partnered with Democrats on

legislation related to Venezuela, denied

this.) When Trump and Pence travelled

to Florida, they met only with Republi­

can officeholders, then invited them to

high­profile briefings in Washington.

The more that the White House dis­

cussed Venezuela and Cuba, the more

the region came to look like an exclu­

sively Republican priority.

In March, 2018, Trump fired McMas­

ter and replaced him with John Bolton,

a fierce advocate of regime change in

Latin America. The Senate staffer told

me, “When Bolton takes over, the mes­

sage was ‘You guys are doing the right

thing, keep going, but you’re not taking

enough political credit. Venezuela policy

will affect Florida in 2020.’” Inside the

White House, Bolton’s confidence cre­

ated the illusion of immediate progress.

He “misled POTUS,” one White House

official said. “Bolton told him, ‘This

whole thing is going to be over soon.’”

After the Administration announced a

battery of policies against Maduro and

the Cuban government, Bolton exam­

ined news reports in Florida to gauge

the reaction. When he found critical op­

eds or letters, especially from Republican

voters faulting the Administration for

not being tough enough, he told staffers,

“These are the guys who are supposed

to be supporting us. If we’re losing them,

we’re doing something wrong.” (A se­

nior Administration official denied that

Bolton had a political agenda.)

Bolton’s appointment was a triumph

for Rubio and the Florida Republicans,

many of whom had long­standing re­

lationships with him. In August, Bolton

fired the N.S.C.’s head of Latin Amer­

ica policy and replaced him with an at­

torney from South Florida named Mau­

ricio Claver­Carone, known among

establishment politicians in Washing­

ton for his extremist, zero­sum outlook

on Cuba. The Republican strategist told

me that, in Miami, “the news about

Mauricio made everyone very happy.”

Trump named another Rubio ally,

Carlos Trujillo, as the U.S. Ambassador

to the Organization of American States,

a body designed to avoid regional mil­

itary conflict. According to three Ad­

“ You’ve all been written out of the will in favor

of more dynamic characters.”

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