If one buys Chávez’s sales pitch, PetroCaribe promises to ‘…contribute to the energy security, socioeconomic development and integration of the Caribbean countries, through the sovereign use of the energy resources.’
I am loath to suggest that Chávez is selling snake oil instead of the crude oil that is supposed to fuel this pact. But I have grave misgivings about the viability of PetroCaribe as a reliable source of ‘discounted’ energy for Caribbean countries…
I have often lamented the failure of Caribbean countries to implement the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) agreement. And it just so happens that I often cite the Bahamian government’s imperious, parochial and self-interested approach to regional negotiations as a major contributing factor… In truth, though, it is just one of many regional governments that seem congenitally averse to regional economic integration. Each seems pathologically confident in its ability to negotiate bilateral agreements that offer far greater benefits than any regional agreement ever could.
Indeed, anyone who reads the fine print in this Chávez pact will see that it’s more about regional politics than regional energy.
Other regional governments are propagating the pitch that PetroCaribe will deliver cheap fuel for local consumption. But their citizens are bound to be sorely disappointed, respectively. Because there’s nothing in this agreement that provides such a guarantee….
(“PetroCaribe: Let’s Look this Gift Horse in the Mouth,” Caribbean Net News, June 30, 2006)
This, in part, is how I advised governments throughout the Caribbean against joining the PetroCaribe alliance Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez launched in 2005. Alas, not only did 12 of the 15-targeted governments refuse to heed my advice; representatives of a number of those governments dismissed it as nothing but ignorant and impudent blather.
Well, I am now constrained not just to say, “I told you so,” but also to report that the PetroCaribe chickens I warned about are coming home to roost:
Following Guatemala’s announcement in early November that it was pulling out of Venezuela’s PetroCaribe alliance, the Hugo Chávez-era oil-for-regional-influence program could be on its last legs, the Christian Science Monitor (CSM) reports.
Although the Venezuelan government has promised to keep PetroCaribe intact, it has nevertheless quietly cut oil shipments, and may push up interest rates and modify repayment terms. Any such changes could have deep and lasting impacts on small countries accustomed to propping up their economies with the shipments, CSM said…
A significant portion of Venezuela’s oil is promised to countries such as India and China, where it’s sending 640,000 barrels per day, half of which is sent to repay $40 billion in loans.
Sending oil to those countries is more financially beneficial to Venezuela than shipments closer to home, where countries are repaying their debts in-kind with products like black beans and chicken parts.
(Caribbean News Now, November 18, 2013)
Enough said?
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