US Secretary of State Marco Rubio begins trip to Latin America

The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, embarked this Tuesday (8) for Colombia, which began his trip through Latin America, which is part of the Donald Trump government's project to expand its "domination of the Americas".

Rubio boarded an official US government plane at around 1 pm Brasília time and is expected to arrive in Colombia this Tuesday. He will also visit Peru and Ecuador, all countries that currently have Trump-aligned governments, according to the US State Department.

Brazil, with which the Trump administration is going through a diplomatic crisis, is not included in the itinerary.

During his trip, scheduled to last until Thursday (10), Rubio will seek to "strengthen important US alliances in the region", the agency said.

Rubio will meet with Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and members of the new governments of Colombia, led by Abelardo de la Espriella, and Peru, led by new president Keiko Fujimori, according to the State Department.

"(The trip will take place) to discuss US support for Colombia's response to the earthquake, strengthening cooperation in the joint fight against narco-terrorism — which threatens our hemisphere — and the benefits of closer trade relations between our countries," department spokesman Tommy Piggott said in the statement.

The announcement comes after the United States Department of State claimed US "dominance" over the Americas and tried to revive the so-called Monroe Doctrine, the strategy used by North American governments for around 200 years to exercise power and influence in Latin America.

In a video released in early August, the department asserts that the country's dominance across America will "never again be questioned."

The State Department also cited, in the video, the operation that captured former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, on January 3 of this year, as the most recent example of the application of North American doctrine on the continent.

And he said the episode sent a "strong signal to the entire hemisphere."