We learned that President Trump will not travel to Latin America this week because of Syria.  Nevertheless, the U.S. will be well represented by V.P. Mike Pence and Senator Marco Rubio.

Normally, these summits are all about the economy or trade agreements.  However, V.P. Pence and Senator Rubio have a golden opportunity to call on Latin America to do something about Venezuela.

I like the addition of Senator Rubio because he has taken a leadership position on Latin America issues, as we see in this report:

Rubio downplayed his role at the summit compared to Pence's, and he said policies related to Venezuela will take precedence at the event.

"It's to obviously focus on the Venezuela situation, but also on some of the issues that other nations in the region are ready to work together and confront," Rubio said.

Rubio also estimates that economic engagement will be an important issue at the summit.

"The more economic engagement we have with these countries going both ways is mutually beneficial, the easier it will be to get policy makers in the United States to care about the Western Hemisphere because they'll have economic constituencies in the United States who care about the future of the region," Rubio said.

We should add that President Trump has relied on Senator Rubio for developing a policy toward Cuba as well.

Frankly, these summits usually produce very little.  However, we may have a chance this time to tell everyone in the world what we think of what is happening in Venezuela.

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