VP Biden Meets Caribbean Leaders in Trinidad & Tobago, Signs Trade Agreement

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met with leaders of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago for a three-hour meeting that resulted in the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) between the United States and the fifteen nations that make up the Caribbean Community. Biden made the diplomatic gesture in the first stop of a three-nation, six-day swing south of the U.S. border to T&T, Colombia, and Brazil.

Twelve of the 15 nations in Caricom are also members of Petrocaribe, an energy cooperation alliance created by the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2005 as a means to strengthen Venezuela's influence in the region through a favorable oil trade agreement. The Petrocaribe alliance allows member nations to buy their oil from oil-rich Venezuela at market value while deferring the majority of payments over 17 to 25 years. New Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has vowed to keep the Petrocaribe agreement in effect.

The U.S. relationship with Venezuela and like-minded leftist governments in the Americas remains antagonistic. Two American embassy officials were shot and wounded late Tuesday night outside a strip club in Caracas, the latest in a string of testy incidents between the countries.

Biden hopes his visit as a goodwill ambassador for the United States will strengthen the relationship between the U.S. and its neighbors.

"This trip will be an important chance to discuss our collective efforts to promote economic growth and development, access to energy and our ongoing collaboration on citizen security," Biden said prior to arriving in Trinidad and Tobago.

The reference to citizen security relates to the U.S. deportation of criminals back to home countries in the Caribbean, a source of tension with local heads of state.

According to the Miami Herald, the U.S. deports thousands of convicted criminals to the Caribbean every year and has done so since 1996, when a federal law mandated that all non-citizens convicted to more than a year in prison be deported from the U.S. upon release. Home countries are only told why an offender is deported, as current law prevents the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency from giving more detailed information of prisoners without explicit prior approval from foreign states.