On Saturday, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio hosted the Shield of the Americas summit in Doral, Fla. In case you missed it, it was the meeting of several members of the Trump administration with 12 right-leaning heads of state from countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and it was focused on security, particularly combatting the cartel crime that plagues our nations, as well as the other issues we all face and how we can work together to solve them.
If you've been reading my articles in recent days — and even in the weeks leading up to the event — you know I've been geeking out over it a little bit. I absolutely loved this idea and am only sorry we didn't do it sooner. I think it's a historic move that will literally change the world if successful. But there was a much smaller story that came from it that I wanted to highlight just because I thought it was kind of cool and maybe a bit symbolic of the times.
Related: The Shield of the Americas Summit’s Five Biggest Losers
I was looking at some photos from the event over the weekend, and I saw Rubio holding the hand of Bolivia's new president, Rodrigo Paz, and smiling as the two of them looked at what appeared to be some sort of trinket in a display box. I wondered what it was but didn't think much more about it. However, on Sunday night, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau offered an explanation, calling it "one of my favorite anecdotes from this job."
After 20 years of socialism and government corruption, the center-right capitalist Paz was elected to become Bolivia's president late last year. It was huge news — a big indicator of the whole Latin America swinging to the right situation that we've been talking about for nearly a year. He's already doing some amazing things for Boliva's economy and national security, and he's been very clear about wanting to partner with the United States and move the country away from China. I believe he's already made a few trips to Washington, D.C. over the last six months or so, meeting with various officials.
While having a non-socialist president is somewhat new to Bolivia after the last couple of decades, politics is not new to Paz. His father, Jaime Paz, was the country's president between 1989 and 1993. The elder Paz actually began his political career as a Marxist revolutionary, but by the time he became president, he'd become a lot more moderate.
At some point during his tenure, President George H.W. Bush welcomed Jaime to the White House, and the Bolivian president brought his young sons, Jaime and Rodrigo, with him. Rodrigo was born in 1967, so he would have been in his early twenties at the time.
According to Landau, "Paz gave Bush a golden family cross. Bush wrote Paz a characteristically gracious thank-you note and said that he would give instructions to return the family heirloom when one of the Paz boys became President" of Bolivia. Little did he know that one of them actually would.
Landau said that the Bush Library contacted the State Department ahead of the Shield of the Americas summit, and on Saturday, Rubio returned the cross to Paz with a copy of the note. "And the best part?" Landau wrote. "President Rodrigo Paz was able to share this story with his now 86-year-old father."
In Landau's X post, he included a picture of the letter, plus a video about the moment. It's in Spanish, but it has some cool pictures, and even if you don't speak the language it's worth watching just to see the genuine excitement and smiles on Paz and Rubio's faces.
This is one of my favorite anecdotes from this job. 36 years ago, President George HW Bush received the President of Bolivia, Jaime Paz (accompanied by his young sons) at the White House, and Paz gave Bush a golden family cross. Bush wrote Paz a characteristically gracious… pic.twitter.com/iOkFxZeXl9
— Christopher Landau (@DeputySecState) March 9, 2026
