President Obama becomes first president to visit Jamaica in 30 years

President Obama becomes first president to visit Jamaica in 30 years
by Jim Kuhnhenn and David McFadden, Associated Press | April 9, 2015 at 10:02 AM


KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Opening a three-day trip to the Caribbean and Central America, President Barack Obama hopes to capitalize on mutual needs in the face of expanding Chinese influence and weakening power by Venezuela, once the energy juggernaut of the Americas.

Obama’s arrival Wednesday evening in Kingston, Jamaica, was low-key compared to the excitement he stirred in the Caribbean upon his election in 2008. Greeted at the airport tarmac by dignitaries including Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, Obama slipped into a motorcade that ran through mostly quiet, empty streets.

The visit comes amid a perception that Obama’s interest in the region has failed to materialize. Yet his travels — first to Jamaica, then to the Summit of the Americas in Panama — follow a year of increased attention to the region by the U.S. president. His immigration executive orders, his efforts to slow the influx of Central American minors to the U.S. border, and his diplomatic outreach to Cuba have put a foreign policy spotlight on U.S. neighbors to the south.

Obama on Thursday will meet with Simpson Miller and with other leaders in the 15-member Caribbean Community. He also plans to speak to young regional leaders in a town-hall setting, continuing a tradition of engaging new generations in foreign political and civil society institutions.

The president promptly paid tribute to the island’s cultural hero, the late reggae star Bob Marley, making an unscheduled visit Wednesday night to the legendary singer’s museum. He toured Marley’s former home as Marley’s hit “One Love” played through the building’s sound system.

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