The Trump administration is expected to name Mauricio Claver-Carone, one of the most outspoken opponents of the Obama administration’s rapprochement with Cuba, as the new senior director of the National Security Council’s Western Hemisphere Affairs, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the decision.
Claver-Carone will take over the influential White House department for Juan Cruz, who led the department since the early months of the Trump administration and was a key architect of Trump’s policiesto pressure the Venezuelan government.
The Miami native, raised in Spain and Orlando, will take over the coordination of Latin American policies among the White House, State Department, Treasury and other agencies.
He is expected to turn up the pressure even more on Venezuela as well as Cuba and Nicaragua, which have become a primary focus of the Trump administration policies on fighting for democracy in the region. He is part of a group of new hires at the National Security Council after John Bolton took over the department.
Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.
