Biden heads to Brazil after ‘brutal’ discussions in Caribbean

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden left Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday after what he and leaders of the mostly English-speaking 15-member Caribbean Community and the Dominican Republic called “frank” discussions on issues of mutual interests.
“It was completely open, completely frank and completely straightforward — even where we disagreed,” Biden said before heading to Brazil, where he will spend three days discussing energy matters and improved U.S. relations with the South American power.
Energy-rich Trinidad was the second stop on the vice president’s three-nation tour that began Sunday in Colombia. Meeting with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, Biden stressed the U.S. support for that nation’s “remarkable progress” in pushing peace and stressed — as he did with Caribbean leaders — the Obama administration’s desire to work as a partner.