Por Victor M. Carriba, special envoy From Presna Latina

Panama, Apr 8 (Prensa Latina) Many are looking suspiciously from this capital, where the 8th Summit of the Americas will be held, at the visit that US President Barack Obama will pay to Jamaica on Thursday, prior to his participation in the hemispheric meeting.

In an evident move to try to attract the nations of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) before the debates at the continental summit, the head of the White House will visit that region with the objective of discussing energy and security issues, according to his official spokespersons.

It is the first time that a US president visits the English-speaking Caribbean in the past 33 years, after Ronald Reagan did so in 1982, and this visit will take place amid strong pressure by progressive forces from Latin America and the Caribbean.

The energy issue is directly linked to Washington’s intentions to break the oil collaboration scheme known as Petrocaribe and developed by Venezuela in favor of the countries of the region since 2005, and involving 18 States.

The creation of that mechanism resulted from concerns about the trends in the world economy and, particularly, the policies and practices prevailing in the industrialized countries that can lead to further marginalization of the smallest Third World countries with economies more dependent on foreign elements.

Last month, Obama issued a decree that labels Venezuela, the cardinal axis of Petrocaribe and other integration groups, an unusual and extraordinary threat to the United States, a decision that has raised a wave of rejection in Latin America and the Caribbean.

On the other hand, the tremendous demand from that region has also forced Washington to agree on inviting Cuba to participate in the summit, scheduled for next Friday and Saturday in this city, for the first time since the beginning of this kind of meeting in 1998.

Cuba is also a member of Petrocaribe and in December 2014, it hosted the 5th CARICOM-Cuba Summit, whose final declaration underlined the importance of new integration mechanism in the region.

Among them, it mentioned the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA-TCP), the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) and Petrocaribe.

A month ago, Petrocaribe held an extraordinary summit in Caracas, where Cuban First Vice President Miguel Díaz-Canel denounced the attempts at “wrecking with lies and absurd maneuvers what we have built with so much effort”.

He pointed out that this resource has become, thanks to Venezuela’s solidarity, a powerful tool to build fairer societies and to work to eradicate poverty and overcome underdevelopment and dependence.

Statistics from the Venezuelan government show that in nearly ten years since its foundation, Petrocaribe has supplied more than 300 million barrels of oil to its member countries.

Díaz-Canel also warned that a situation of instability in Venezuela will not only affect the government and its people, “but it might cause a regional energy crisis of devastating effects in our economies and in our peoples’ lives”.

An eventuality if the new US actions continue, like Obama’s Caribbean stopover before the Summit of the Americas.

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