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Chavez in J'ca for Petrocaribe talks
Nigel Cumberbatch

Tuesday, August 23rd 2005



Venezuela's oil facility initiative for the Caribbean, Petrocaribe, will move one step closer to implementation today when that country's President Hugo Chavez arrives in Jamaica for a one-day visit.

Chavez was scheduled to travel to Jamaica from Cuba where he was meeting at the weekend with Cuban President Fidel Castro.

"I am going to Jamaica to take one more step with Petrocaribe, (and for) the signing of bilateral agreements for (energy) supplies and support," said the Venezuelan leader during his weekly radio/television programme Hello President broadcast from Havana.

Chavez said he planned holding a "working meeting" with Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson.

Jamaica and 13 other Caribbean countries signed the Petrocaribe initiative last June in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela.

Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados did not sign the deal.

Chavez noted that Petrocaribe was designed as an integral proposal to meet the energy needs of Caribbean countries that do not produce oil and within the framework of the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA).

Chavez launched ALBA as an alternative to the US-proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement (FTAA).

The Venezuelan President said his Petrocaribe initiative was not limited to the supply of hydrocarbons and also contemplated the development of infrastructure.

Therefore, Petrocaribe will work on the construction of installations and structures for fuel storage in those nations that are signatories of the initiative, he said.

The central idea behind Petrocaribe is to establish a direct relationship between oil producers and the end consumer aimed at avoiding intermediaries and their impact on the elevated cost of energy, he said.