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US President Barack Obama arrived today in Jamaica as part of an ongoing effort to persuade the island and its neighbors to reduce dependency on Venezuela’s bilateral PetroCaribe program.As the first active US president to visit Jamaica in 33 years, the primary goal of Mr. Obama’s trip will be to develop, in coordination with the World Bank, an investment plan in the Caribbean’s energy sector. Vice-president Joe Biden has alleged that PetroCaribe, founded by Hugo Chavez in 2005, is being used as a “tool of coercion” against the region by the South American nation. For almost a decade, Venezuela has shipped fuel to 18 nations in the Caribbean and Central America with favorable terms for payment, such as low-interest loans, while investing in community projects including hospitals, schools, highways, and homeless shelters.

Last week, the Bolivarian government, through the Petrocaribe initiative, donated US$16 million to help the government of St. Kitts and Nevis provide for former sugar industry workers.In January, Biden gathered Caribbean heads of state in Washington as part of his Caribbean Energy Security Initiative, which he claims is seeking clean energy solutions for small island governments. However, the focus of the event was less about environmentalism and more about breaking away from Venezuelan trade.“Whether it’s the Ukraine or the Caribbean, no country should be able to use natural resources as a tool of coercion against any other country,” he told the leaders in attendance.Last month, US Secretary of State John Kerry warned of “strategic damage” on Venezuela’s part which could cause “a serious humanitarian crisis in our region.”

According to a Miami Herald report published on March 26th, Venezuela has halved subsidized shipments of crude oil to Cuba and other PetroCaribe member nations from 400,000 barrels per day in 2012, to 200,000 barrels per day.The article, which claimed to cite a Barclay’s Bank report, has since been refuted by the Venezuelan government. Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Delcy Rodriguez insisted last week that the information was “not true,” and was being published in a concerted effort to discredit PetroCaribe.

Venezuela’s President said U.S. officials have urged Venezuela’s isolation to regional leaders, saying that the government will soon fall. On Friday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who just returned from participating at the III Summit of Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), said leaders informed him of a meeting with regional leaders where U.S. Vice President Joe Biden "urged them to leave Venezuela isolated," saying that "the government will soon fall." The South American leader went on to accuse Biden of telling Caribbean leaders that Petrocaribe, the program offering subsidized Venezuelan oil to Caribbean nations, would end soon. At the CELAC meeting, Presidents from Latin America and the Caribbean as well as social movements from the region unanimously rejected U.S. intervention in the internal affairs of sovereign countries in the hemisphere. Maduro said the region is experiencing a "new historical era," which is part of the transformation towards regional integration and a multipolar world.

The Venezuelan president also addressed the recent media attack against key members of the Bolivarian government, including the president of the Venezuelan parliament, Diosdado Cabello. Maduro said his government would give moral and institutional support to Cabello and other officials who are being maligned by international press. The right-wing Spanish newspaper ABC reported early this week that an ex-bodyguard of Diosdado Cabello had been working with U.S. agencies, provided information allegedly implicating his Cabello in drug trafficking. Cabello has refuted the claims, and has urged the paper to provide evidence regarding the accusations. Maduro and other Venezuelan officials called into question the political character of the paper, which supported the Spanish dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco. Maduro also said he will be sending a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama, urging him to stop aggressions against Venezuela.