KINGSTON, Jamaica — President Obama is expected to use a meeting of Caribbean nations on Thursday to try to reassert American influence in the region and press its leaders to pursue alternative energy solutions that would loosen their reliance on oil from Venezuela.
Mr. Obama and Energy Secretary Ernest J. Moniz arrived here Wednesday night, ahead of a day of meetings focused on trade and energy use and production in the Caribbean basin.
The gathering is a prelude to a larger meeting of Latin American nations, the Summit of the Americas, which opens Friday in Panama City. Mr. Obama’s push to normalize relations with Cuba, and tensions with Venezuela, are likely to overshadow a crowded policy agenda there.
Both stops this week are efforts by the president to improve relations and strengthen American engagement with smaller and less wealthy neighbors in the hemisphere. The push for stronger Caribbean ties comes as an economic crisis intensifies in Venezuela, whose subsidized oil is used by most Caribbean countries.
American officials say they are eager to work with Caribbean partners — 14 of whom will participate in meetings with Mr. Obama on Thursday — on alternative energy solutions. They also want to demonstrate a commitment to a region they concede has sometimes felt ignored by the United States.
Mr. Obama, the first American president to visit Jamaica since 1982, will also meet on Thursday with Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller and he will hold a town hall-style meeting with young people before departing for Panama.
The Caribbean outreach comes amid strained relations between the Obama administration and President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, who has reacted angrily to an executive order by Mr. Obama that froze assets of midlevel officials in his government suspected of human rights abuses or violations of due process.
The order described Venezuela as a threat to United States national security, a charge that senior American officials have recently tried to soften, arguing that it was merely pro forma language that accompanies any such sanctions.
Mr. Maduro says he has collected millions of signatures on a petition calling for the sanctions to be lifted, and that he will deliver the document to Mr. Obama during the summit meeting. A top State Department official made an unexpected trip on Wednesday to Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, for a round of diplomatic maneuvering before the regional meeting begins on Friday.
But the dispute could nevertheless play out at the gathering, where Mr. Obama is hoping to highlight his move toward détente with Cuba and a corresponding tightening of ties throughout Latin America.
The dynamics are less complicated in Jamaica, where Ms. Simpson-Miller was waiting Wednesday night at the foot of Air Force One to embrace Mr. Obama upon his arrival in Kingston. Before turning in for the night, the president made a brief tour of the Bob Marley Museum, in a large Victorian house adjacent to a palm tree-shaded courtyard with red, yellow and green walls. Mr. Marley’s “One Love” could be heard during Mr. Obama’s visit.
As he took in Marley memorabilia, the president reminisced about his days of listening to the reggae legend.
“I still have all the albums,” Mr. Obama said.
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