Trump packs foreign policy team with Cuba hardliners from Florida

[DonViejo]

By MARC CAPUTO 08/31/2018 01:12 PM EDT

President Trump is poised to promote an international finance official tied to Sen. Marco Rubio to lead Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council, making him the fourth member of an unofficial team of top pro-democracy Cuba hardliners who are executing and advocating for the administration’s Latin American policies.

Mauricio Claver-Carone, an attorney who rose to prominence in conservative foreign policy circles as a writer for the Capitol Hill Cubans blog and as the executive director of the U.S. Cuba Democracy PAC, advised Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. He then joined Trump’s transition team for the U.S. Treasury department, where he later worked on and was instrumental in U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s president, who was labeled a “dictator” by the Trump administration.

Now the acting head of the International Monetary Fund, Claver-Carone will work under National Security Advisor John Bolton and coordinate White House policy with the State, Treasury and other departments. Reached by phone, Claver-Carone said he couldn’t comment.

Claver-Carone joins fellow Cuban-Americans promoted by Trump to execute a hardline foreign policy in which Cuba is seen as a major disruptor in Latin American affairs: Carlos Trujillo (U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States), Eliot Pedrosa (U.S. Alternate Executive Director of the InterAmerican Development Bank) and Tomas Regalado (head of Radio Marti).

more
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/31/mauricio-claver-carone-cuba-national-security-council-805571