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Obama's big Caribbean trip is all about Venezuela and oil

Cindy Arnson

Cynthia Arnson, Director of the Latin American Program, is quoted in this article regarding Obama's agenda at the Summit of the Americas in Panama City.

Obama's big Caribbean trip is all about Venezuela and oil

President Obama is escaping DC's soggy spring weather this week with a three-day trip to the Caribbean and Central America, starting with Jamaica on Thursday. But there's much more going than just a sunny tropical vacation.

After his meetings in Jamaica, Obama will attend the Summit of the Americas in Panama City, where he's expected to have "an interaction" with Cuban leader Raoul Castro, the first since the US and Cuba began to normalize relations last December. He can also anticipate a tense encounter with Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, who has announced plans to present Obama with a petition signed by 10 million of his citizens protesting sanctions the US recently imposed on Venezuelan officials.

[...]

The fall in oil prices also battered Venezuela's oil-dependent economy, raising questions about whether it would be able to continue its support at all.

"Given the economic disaster in Venezuela today any rational person dependent on Venezuelan financial support would have to be looking at other options," Cynthia Arnson, the director of the Latin American program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, told the Miami Herald last December.

[...]

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About the Author

Cindy Arnson

Cynthia J. Arnson

Distinguished Fellow, Latin America Program
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Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more