Non-VP Rubio Sits Down for Impressive Number of Bilaterals

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) may vociferously deny that he wants to be vice president or would accept such an offer, but he certainly got experience in bilateral meetings at the Summit of the Americas.

“I’m not going to be the vice president,” Rubio said Friday in an interview with CNN en Español’s Ismael Cala. “I’m not.”

The ranking member of the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs made the trip this weekend on his own and not as part of a congressional delegation.

Yesterday, he met with Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina and Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

“This week’s Summit of the Americas is a reminder of how important our friendships and alliances in the Western Hemisphere are in helping us create jobs, achieve greater security and bring the promise of democracy to every corner of the region,” said Rubio. “I was honored to meet President Calderón and President Pérez Molina to discuss the issues of mutual interest between our nations in fighting drug cartels, stopping human trafficking and strengthening the economic ties that bind us.”

The senator and potential No. 2 on the GOP ticket also met with Cuban exile leaders in Cartagena, Colombia.

“It’s important to understand that Cuba does not belong at the Summit of the Americas because it fully rejects the fundamental right of the Cuban people to elect their own leaders in free and fair elections,” said Rubio, who met today with a delegation from the pro-democracy organization M.A.R. por Cuba.

“The summit is a meeting of democratic nations and a tyranny like Cuba has no place at that table.”

Today, Rubio sat down with Paraguay President Fernando Lugo and Chilean President Sebastián Piñera.

During his meeting with Piñera, Rubio hand-delivered an open letter from the Ladies in White to the presidents of the hemisphere, calling attention to the Castro regime’s deplorable human rights record and asking for the regime’s exclusion from future summits.

Rubio also met with members of the Colmbian Congress and toured the Port of Cartegena.