Obama to offer alternative to Venezuelan crude on Caribbean swing

[Judi Lynn]

Obama to offer alternative to Venezuelan crude on Caribbean swing
AFP
April 8, 2015, 1:00 pm

Washington (AFP) - Barack Obama will become the first US president to set foot on Jamaican soil in more than three decades Wednesday, as the United States bids to check Venezuelan influence in the Caribbean. Obama will arrive in Kingston for a meeting with the 15-member CARICOM Caribbean bloc, the first time a sitting US president visits the island since Ronald Reagan in 1982.

Obama will be keen to offer an alternative to cheap Venezuelan oil, which has enticed many of the region's struggling economies, but looks set to end. Obama will have to woo countries that while geographically close to the United States, sometimes feel politically distant.

. . .

If the US has not always made its presence fully felt in the Caribbean, that vacuum was filled by Petrocaribe, an initiative by Caracas' state-owned PDVSA -- Petroleos de Venezuela. The program offered Caribbean and some Central American nations the opportunity to defer payment for oil under low interest rates.

. . .

Piccone, now of the Brookings Institution, said the cuts to Petrocaribe are estimated to be anywhere between ten and thirty percent of supply. "The goal of the United states now is to try to break up Petrocaribe and offer in particular the Caribbean states that are so vulnerable and so dependent on energy imports some extra special attention."

Read more: https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/world/a/27012764/

LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141061481

[Demeter]

1. I expect they will laugh him out of the room

What kind of morons come up with this sort of foreign policy?

"Buy our oil, or we will bomb you to perdition!!"

I fail to see any carrots there....nor any reason for the Caribbean to turn its back on Venezuela, who has been a friend indeed.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Dubya couldn't have created any scheme cruder than this one. Transparent as hell, isn't it? n/t

[Demeter]

3. W would have been straightforward about the "bomb to perdition" part

Obama's too wimpy to even mention it, because he knows that the uproar would destroy the game. IOKIYAAR!

[Bacchus4.0]

4. They need the energy Demeter, the Venezuela subsidy is ending

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/03/30/396399497/venezuela-cuts-oil-subsidies-to-caribbean-nations

------------------------

The Miami Herald, citing a report by Barclays investment bank, says shipments of subsidized oil to Petrocaribe members are down by about half for most countries from what they were in 2012.

Caribbean nations have been bracing for the steep cutbacks in shipments of cheap crude oil, according to The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper quotes the governor of Jamaica's central bank saying his government is adjusting by being more cautious about what to expect from Petrocaribe.

Even Cuba — the nation most closely-aligned ideologically with Venezuela — is seeing cuts to its subsidies. The Barclays report says Cuba paid for its oil by sending doctors and teachers to Venezuela.

[hack89]

5. No - they will take him up on his offer

especially the Caribbean countries.

There is a good reason for them to turn their back on Venezuela - economic self interest as the Venezuelan economy implodes and the cheap oil disappears. These countries need and want to grow their economies - that is not going to happen with Venezuela. Closer ties with the largest economy in the region, on the other hand....

[Bacchus4.0]

6. Yeah, I mean they have to. Venezuela already cut the subsidy amount by one half

Its not like there is a good short term solution for these countries. Sorry chavistas, oil diplomacy and oil funded social programs are dependent on the price of oil.

[hack89]

7. So Obama has actually threaten military action? Didn't know that. nt

[Bacchus4.0]

8. I'll be the first to condemn the Jamaican invasion n/t

[jomin41]

9. I don't believe that. n/t