Mexico foreign minister heads to Caribbean to win over Venezuelan allies -official

Avante

16/02/2018 20:26

(Adds comments from Mexican foreign ministry to EXCLUSIVE 
published on Feb 15, paragraphs 6, 7) 
    By Gabriel Stargardter 
    MEXICO CITY, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Mexico's foreign minister 
will travel to Jamaica, Grenada and Saint Lucia in March, a 
Mexican official said on Thursday,  as part of efforts to erode 
Venezuela's oil-based influence in the Caribbean. 
    Meanwhile, Cuban diplomats will visit Mexico in March to 
discuss the regional impact of the crisis in Venezuela, the 
official said. The Cuban embassy in Mexico City said the trip 
was not yet confirmed but that the two countries have regular 
bilateral meetings. Still, there are no signs that Cuba, a 
steadfast ally of Caracas, is ready to turn its back on 
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.   
    Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray's planned trip 
follows a visit to Latin America and the Caribbean earlier this 
month by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who announced 
plans to study how possible oil sanctions against Venezuela 
could be mitigated in the Caribbean.   
    The Mexican foreign minister's trip represents the latest 
development in U.S.-led pressure on Maduro, who retains loyalty 
from some Caribbean nations that have long benefited from 
Caracas' oil largess and have been unwilling to shun the country 
in regional diplomatic efforts.  
    "The message is: Venezuela is not the only country that can 
help (Caribbean nations), that if there's a crisis in Venezuela, 
they have more friends," said the Mexican official, who was not 
authorized to speak publicly about the as-yet undisclosed trip. 
    In a statement, Mexico's foreign ministry said Videgaray was 
planning trips to the Caribbean. 
    "The foreign ministry is eager for those trips to be 
arranged, and so possible dates are being sought," it said, 
adding that several Caribbean countries had invited the minister 
for work visits since last year. 
    The foreign ministries of Jamaica, Grenada and Saint Lucia 
could not be reached for comment.   
    Videgaray has led Mexico's efforts to try and improve 
cooperation with its top trade partner on security, immigration, 
and foreign policy, hoping to convince the United States to take 
a softer stance on the North American Free Trade Agreement 
(NAFTA) that underpins the majority of Mexican 
exports. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N1PP04I 
    U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to quit the pact 
if it cannot be improved to benefit U.S. workers. 
    On his way to Jamaica, Tillerson said the United States was 
closer to deciding whether to impose sanctions on Venezuelan 
oil, adding that Canada, Mexico and the United States were 
studying how to mitigate the impact of such a move.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N1PX1NT 
    Restrictions on Venezuela's oil industry would represent an 
escalation of financial pressure on the OPEC member, which is 
gripped by severe shortages of food and medicine. Such sanctions 
could also hurt U.S. refineries that process Venezuelan oil. 
    Sanctions have so far focused on individual members of 
Maduro's government and a ban on buying new Venezuelan debt. 
     
    CARIBBEAN BLOC 
    In a June meeting in Cancun, foreign ministers from the 
34-nation Organization of American States (OAS) failed to reach 
agreement on a resolution criticizing Venezuela, with only 20 
countries backing the proposal, shy of the 23-nation threshold. 
    Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and 
Dominica voted against the resolution, while Grenada, Haiti, the 
Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago and Antigua and Barbuda 
abstained.  
    Jamaica and Saint Lucia backed the proposal. 
    Officials from other Caribbean nations will be present at 
Videgaray's Jamaican stop, the Mexican official said, adding 
that the Caribbean trip represents an attempt to end the 
stalemate in the June OAS meeting. 
    "It's a result of Cancun," the official said. "There was a 
bloc in the Caribbean that wasn't pulling in the same direction 
as the OAS."  
    Reuters reported last year that Mexico was looking at the 
possibility of replacing Venezuela's Petrocaribe program that 
provided cheap loans for oil to Caribbean nations - and has 
helped Maduro retain diplomatic support in the region. 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N1L9104 
    However, the Mexican official said it was still not clear 
how Mexico could furnish Caribbean nations with cheap energy, 
given the country's struggling domestic fuel production, and 
that Mexico relies on oil income for about a fifth of the 
government budget.  
    The energy ministry remains unconvinced by the oil diplomacy 
plan, led by Videgaray, but there are signs it is becoming more 
flexible, the official said. 
 
 (Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Additional reporting by 
Frank Jack Daniel; editing by Diane Craft and David Gregorio) 
 ((Gabriel.Stargardter@thomsonreuters.com; +52 1 55 54 55 26 49; 
Reuters Messaging: 
gabriel.stargardter.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: MEXICO USA/CARIBBEAN