Make light of Cuba regularly intervening in area close to Suriname (9)
I believe the answer is:
extenuate
'make light of' is the definition.
'cuba regularly intervening in area close to suriname' is the wordplay.
'regularly' indicates alternate letters (regularly take one letter, leave next etc.).
'intervening in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'area' becomes 'extent' (I've seen this before**).
'close to' says to take the final letters (the close/ending of).
The last letter of 'suriname' is 'e'.
The alternating letters of 'cuba' are 'ua'.
'ua' inserted into 'extent' is 'extenuat'.
'extenuat'+'e'='EXTENUATE'
(Other definitions for extenuate that I've seen before include "Mitigate" , "Lessen the seriousness of (an offence) with a mitigating factor" .)