MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CMC) — Mexico’s foreign minister Luis Videgaray is to visit three Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries as part of the efforts to erode Venezuela’s influence in the Caribbean.

Foreign media reports said that while there has been no official confirmation of the visit to Jamaica, Grenada and St Lucia, Videgaray’s visit comes on the heels a visit to Latin America and the Caribbean by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who announced plans to study how possible oil sanctions against Venezuela could be mitigated in the Caribbean.

“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,” Reuters quoted an un-named Mexican official, who was not authorised to speak publicly about the foreign minister’s upcoming visit to the Caribbean.

Last June, Cancun, foreign ministers from the 34-member Organisation of American States (OAS) failed to reach agreement on a resolution criticizing Venezuela, with only 20 countries backing the proposal.

St Kitts-Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica voted against the resolution, while Grenada, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago and Antigua and Barbuda abstained. Jamaica and St Lucia backed the proposal.

The Mexican official told Reuters that officials from other Caribbean countries will be present in Jamaica when Videgaray visits the island, adding that the Caribbean trip represents an attempt to end the stalemate in the June OAS meeting.

“It’s a result of Cancun. There was a bloc in the Caribbean that wasn’t pulling in the same direction as the OAS,” he added.

Last week, Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness joined Tillerson in expressing disappointment with the actions of the Nicolas Maduro government that Washington has sought to isolate in recent years.

Holness said Jamaica has always supported human rights as well as peace in the region “and Jamaica wants to see the people of Venezuela being able to enjoy their democracy.

“This is a principle that has nothing to do with any other country. This has always been Jamaica’s position. We wish the best for the people of Venezuela,” he said, noting that the island does not now import oil from the South American country as it used to do in the past under the PetroCaribe initiative that Caracas had instituted several years ago to help regional countries deal with the high cost of petroleum products on the global market.

“With the new dynamics in the global trade in energy and with the United States now becoming a net exporter of energy resources Jamaica can in this new paradigm benefit from that”.

Holness, takes over the chairmanship of the 15-member regional integration movement (CARICOM) in July and said both Kingston and Washington agreed “that positive engagement between the government and the opposition in Venezuela is essential”.

He said they both expressed regret that the attempts by the Organisation of American States (OAS) to “promote dialogue have not been met with success”.