U.S. President Barack Obama walks outside with tour guide Natasha Clark, during his unannounced visit to the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston, Jamaica, Wednesday, April 8, 2015. (AP Photo) The Caribbean region collectively cheered when President Barack Obama was first elected president in 2008. Calypso and reggae songs were written in his honor, the French Caribbean island of Martinique named a road after him, and Antigua’s highest mountain officially became “Mount Obama” as the small country saluted him as a symbol of black achievement.
The first president to visit Jamaica in three decades, Obama arrived in Kingston Wednesday evening trying to rekindle an enthusiasm that has waned amid a perceived lack of attention from the American president.
Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, US Ambassador to Jamaica Luis Moreno and a dozen other dignitaries greeted Obama.
The president promptly embraced the local color and one of the island’s icons, making a late evening visit to the Bob Marley Museum. In shirt sleeves, Obama toured the museum as Marley’s hit “One Love” played through the sound system. One of the rooms he explored held the late reggae star’s platinum records and a Grammy award.
“What a wonderful tour,” he said.
Obama’s trip is more than just an effort in rebuilding popularity, though. His meetings Thursday with Simpson Miller and with other leaders in the 15-member Caribbean Community are weighted with self-interest.
China has steadily expanded its economic alliances in the Caribbean, and the region is seeking to reduce its dependence on subsidized oil from an economically struggling Venezuela. China is providing much of the financing for new roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects.
“China is running away with the gold in the view of many region watchers. Its footprint is visible and obvious through its ‘checkbook’ diplomacy in the Caribbean,” said Anthony Bryan, an international relations professor at Trinidad’s campus of the University of the West Indies, a public university system serving 18 English-speaking countries and territories.
“We, in looking at the region, saw that a number of the (Caribbean) countries had significant energy needs,” said Benjamin Rhodes, a White House deputy national security adviser. “At the same time, the United States has significant resources, not just in terms of our own energy production, but also in our energy infrastructure, in our ability to work with countries that have formed cooperative solutions to promote energy security.”
There are growing signs that the U.S. is stepping up its focus on the Caribbean to help fill a potential void left by Venezuela’s scaled-back oil diplomacy. Earlier this year, Vice President Joe Biden hosted prime ministers and other top officials from all Caribbean countries except Cuba at the first Caribbean Energy Security Summit in Washington. The focus was on exploring ways to help Caribbean nations obtain financing from international financial institutions to convert diesel-powered energy plants to natural gas and increase alternative energy sources.
“As the economic crisis in