After completing his 130 days of service as a special employee of Washington this May, the politician will dedicate himself to running his private company.
14ymedio, Havana, 11 May 2025 — Mauricio Claver-Carone the Cuban-American lawyer and businessman whom Donald Trump chose during his second term to “restore order” in Latin America, will leave the government at the end of May, completing 130 days of his tenure as a special employee of Washington. After his departure, he will dedicate himself to running his Miami-based financial firm, Lara Fund, according to Bloomberg.
As the United States’ special envoy for Latin America, and throughout his political career, Claver-Carone has been a vocal critic of the continent’s dictatorships, especially those of Venezuela and Cuba. At an event held at Miami-Dade College in early April, the lawyer asserted that the Trump administration would exert more pressure on the Cuban regime’s military and intelligence apparatus, and he estimated that the economic pressure applied so far has been insufficient.
“We’ are going to be more surgical, more effective,” he promised at the time, arguing that the travel ban on the island and the obstruction of remittances are outdated strategies and that it was necessary to “be more creative.” He also insisted that “the Cuban government must understand that our tools and President Trump’s willingness in this regard are different from what they’ve seen in the past.”
He also compared the case of Havana with that of Caracas: “The sanctions themselves are based on old laws that sometimes have no side effects,” unlike the case of Venezuela, where “the instruments are much more targeted, effective, have side effects, and are, therefore ,more powerful,” he argued.
Claver-Carone has supported the deportation policies initiated after Trump took office.
Claver-Carone has supported the deportation policies initiated after Trump took office, arguing that they represent a “short-term pain for long-term benefits.” “If you don’t want to spend 60 years in exile, then stop that process now, make the short-term sacrifices now, because otherwise, you won’t get anywhere,” he urged.
In addition, he has also been highly critical of the use of USAID funds earmarked for the Cuban opposition and independent journalism.
Havana has taken the announcement of Claver-Carone’s departure from the government as an undeniable sign of internal disagreements among figures close to Trump. According to an article published Saturday by Cubadebate, signed by Cuban spokesperson Randy Alonso, the “superb” lawyer has been displaced by Marco Rubio, also of Cuban origin, and recently appointed Interim National Security Advisor, in addition to being Secretary of State.
“Claver-Carone and el señorito Rubio seem to be swallowing but not chewing,” Alonso says, based on another article published by Clarín. According to the Argentine newspaper, the government of Javier Milei has welcomed the departure of the politician from Trump’s Cabinet. Milei had strongly criticized Buenos Aires’ financial relationship with Beijing while the former was trying to negotiate a loan from the International Monetary Fund.
“In that Administration [Donald Trump’s first], where Carone held a more privileged position than Rubio, he was the main architect of the more than 200 ominous measures that the Trump administration imposed against Cuba,” says Alonso, who highlighted the politician’s expulsion from the presidency of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) “for granting salary and position favors to his lover since his time as National Security Advisor for Latin America.”
Javier Milei’s government has welcomed the departure of the politician from Trump’s Cabinet, who strongly criticized Buenos Aires’ financial relationship with Beijing.
His removal from that position in 2022 was the cause of several clashes between Claver-Carone and Guillermo Francos, Milei’s current chief of staff, who then represented Alberto Fernández’s administration at the Inter American Development Bank (IDB). According to Argentina, the American was blocking the delivery of loans to the country. After his departure from the institution, the lawyer claimed that Francos was behind his expulsion.
“They can kick me out for being from the United States, for being a Cuban-American from Miami, for being a Republican, or for whatever they want. But not for this; this is defamation,” the politician complained in an interview with EFE, asserting that the decision had been “arbitrary.”
In any case, Havana is another celebrating Claver-Carone’s departure from the United States government, as it removes another politician opposed to its regime from its list of inconveniences: “He lasted in this administration as long as a piece of candy at a school gate. And we’re not going to mourn him in these parts. A good son of the same man who has been against the Cuban people.”
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