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RUBIO'S DEWLAP SHOULDN'T FRIGHTEN JAMAICANS ACCUSTOMED TO LIZARDS
By Dennis A. Minott, PhD
September 17, 2026
There is something almost zoologically appropriate about the way power sometimes arrives in the Caribbean. It extends its dewlap, makes itself conspicuous, signals territorial authority, and then waits to see whether the smaller creature will retreat. But Jamaicans have lived too long with lizards to be easily impressed by throat fans. The anole's dewlap is a signalling instrument; politics has its own. And this is where the Marco Rubio episode becomes more serious than a joke about anatomy, because Jamaica has lately provided a case study in what happens when the dewlap of a superpower meets the sovereignty of a small Caribbean state.
Consider Cuba. For more than half a century, Jamaica and Cuba have maintained cooperation in health, education, science, culture and sport. Jamaica's own Foreign Ministry described the Cuban medical cooperation programme in March 2025 as having existed for more than five decades and as a "vital pillar" of Jamaica's healthcare system [2]. The educational relationship is not imaginary either: Cuba has provided Jamaicans with thousands of scholarships over the years, including fourteen fully funded places in 2025 covering medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine and ophthalmology [3]. For the 2025–26 academic year, Cuba's bilateral programme advertised seven undergraduate medical scholarships and four health-technology scholarships, with tuition, accommodation, stipend, meals, study materials, medical insurance and airfare included [4]. Cuban doctors, nurses, biomedical engineers and technicians became part of Jamaica's healthcare infrastructure, including in areas where Jamaica has faced shortages of specialised personnel.
In March 2025, Prime Minister Andrew Holness told Rubio publicly that Jamaica had a deficit of health personnel and that Cuban medical personnel were legally employed and treated under Jamaican labour laws. Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith--displaying no dewlap--likewise emphasised that the presence of roughly 400 Cuban medical personnel was important to Jamaica's health system [5]. Rubio's position was different: he characterised the Cuban medical programme as involving labour exploitation and human trafficking, characterisations that Cuba and several Caribbean governments rejected [5]. So there, in Kingston, stood the dewlap. And Jamaica stood there too.
But something changed. In March 2026, Jamaica announced that it would end its long-standing government-to-government medical cooperation agreement with Cuba. The Foreign Ministry said the two governments had been unable to agree on the terms of a new technical-cooperation arrangement after the previous agreement expired in February 2023, though Jamaica indicated that Cuban medical professionals could still be engaged individually under Jamaican labour law [6]. One can describe that as a Jamaican policy decision. One can also note the diplomatic context. Rubio had publicly challenged the Cuban medical programmes, and Jamaica perplexingly ended its bilateral arrangement. That sequence deserves scrutiny—not conspiracy theories, but scrutiny.
Now let us move from medicine to petroleum, where the facts matter. Petrojam was 51% Jamaican and 49% Venezuelan-owned after PDV Caribe acquired its minority interest. In 2019, the Jamaican Government negotiated the repurchase of Venezuela's 49% stake, with Kamina Johnson Smith leading Jamaica's negotiating team. The Government reported that PDV had accepted a settlement-price offer while negotiations over the remaining terms continued [1]. Jamaica ultimately proceeded with the repurchase. So no: Jamaica did not "expropriate" Venezuela's Petrojam stake because Rubio protruded his dewlap. The historical record does not support that formulation. But the larger question remains legitimate: how much of Jamaica's foreign-policy room for manoeuvre is compromised by dependence upon the United States?
The numbers are uncomfortable. In 2025, Jamaica's principal import partners were the United States, China, Brazil, Japan and Trinidad and Tobago. The United States alone supplied approximately US$2.85 billion of Jamaica's imports [7], and it accounts for roughly 40% of Jamaica's total trade [8]. That economic asymmetry is real. It is not an insult to America; it is not an insult to Jamaica. It is simply a fact. But sovereignty means that economic asymmetry must not silently become political obedience.
And now we come to the newest chapter: third-country nationals. In 2026, the United States entered discussions with Jamaica concerning an arrangement under which Jamaica could receive hombres deported from the United States who are not Jamaican nationals. National Security Minister Horace Chang confirmed that a memorandum of understanding had been signed with the US Department of Homeland Security under which Jamaica could receive up to 25 such persons every two weeks, with details concerning accommodation and compensation still being negotiated. The Government described the arrangement as a structured process rather than the indiscriminate "dumping" of migrants [9].
There is a profoundly important constitutional question here. Not "Is America our friend?" Not "Is Rubio a good man or a bad man?" Not even "Do we like the United States?" The question is: what exactly has Jamaica agreed to—and under whose authority?
A sovereign Parliament should be able to see the terms. A sovereign people should understand the obligations. The public should know what Jamaica receives, what Jamaica assumes, what Jamaica risks, how long the arrangement lasts, and under what circumstances Jamaica can terminate it. That is not anti-Americanism. It is constitutionalism. It is precisely what sovereignty means.
And now the dewlap metaphor reaches its proper conclusion. Rubio's + Hegseth's dewlaps have not frightened Tehran into submission; the United States remains engaged in a difficult confrontation with Iran [10]. It has not produced Copenhagen's surrender over Greenland either; Denmark continues to pursue negotiations over the Arctic, while Greenland remains self-governing within the Kingdom of Denmark [11]. Nor has Canadian sovereignty disappeared merely because Washington has applied enormous economic pressure; Canada continues negotiating while strengthening other relationships, including with Europe [12].
And that brings us home. Jamaica is not Iran, Canada or Denmark, and does not possess their economic, military or geopolitical weight. But precisely because Jamaica is smaller, its constitutional institutions matter even more. The answer to a superpower's dewlap is not bravado, nor timidity, nor theatrical nationalism. It is institutional backbone: Parliament doing Parliament's work, Cabinet explaining its decisions, treaties and memoranda being scrutinised, the Opposition asking questions, journalists digging, academics examining, civil society reading the fine print—and Jamaican citizens refusing to confuse American friendship with American ownership.
Because the little Jamaican anole knows something profound about power. When the dewlap comes out, everybody looks. But looking is not surrender. The lizard watches back. And Jamaica should too. So, Mr Secretary: extend the dewlap if you must. Jamaicans have seen dewlaps before. We grew up with them. What we need to know is not how large the throat fan is, but what is behind it—and whether Jamaica's elected institutions are still being allowed to decide for Jamaica. That is the real Thunderclap.
Sources
[1] Jamaica Information Service, "Gov't Reports Good Progress in Repurchase of Venezuelan Stake in Petrojam."
[2] MFAFT Jamaica, "Foreign Ministry provides update on Cuban Medical Cooperation Programme."
[3] Jamaica Information Service, "Students Receive Full Scholarships to Study in Cuba."
[4] Ministry of Finance, "Cuba Advertisement 2025–2026."
[5] Reuters, "Rubio to discuss with Jamaica Cuban doctor program after US visa threats," 26 March 2025.
[6] AP News, "Jamaica to end decades-long agreement with Cuba over medical missions criticized by US."
[7] Trading Economics, "Jamaica Imports By Country."
[8] Trade.gov, "Jamaica – Market Overview."
[9] AP News, "US in talks with Jamaica to send third-country migrants as rift widens in Caribbean."
[10] Reuters, "China, US top diplomats discuss 'high-level interactions' in call," 17 September 2026.
[11] Reuters, "Denmark PM says hopes for peaceful way forward with US on Arctic, Greenland," 14 September 2026.
[12] Government of Canada, "Minister Anand meets with United States Secretary of…"
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