Saga of Venezuela's Oil offer to CARICOM - Is there really more in the mortar than the pestle? By Abigail Kippins Guyana Chronicle October 22, 2000 IF VENEZUELA is using its very significant position as the world's fourth largest oil producer to spread its influence in the Caribbean region, then it needs to speedily reassess its strategy, especially as it relates to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) states. Conflicting media reports and statements out of Caracas as well as out of Georgetown, including one by the CARICOM Secretariat, have not been particularly helpful in eliminating confusion. What has emerged in the process is an apparent testing by Venezuela of CARICOM's diplomatic resolve on a required collective response - but which has not come - to Caracas's offer of a new concessionary oil facility to some Caribbean states. It is related to an unfriendly reference by Venezuela to Guyana with which it has a territorial dispute. The Caracas oil facility may not be a case of more in the mortar than the pestle. But there is clearly a need for some straight answers in both Venezuela and CARICOM about why all the current confusion developed in the first place without any official action in either Caracas or by CARICOM to initially clarify and resolve the relevant issues. Attempts by Venezuela to rationalise exclusion - until another unspecified time - of the majority of CARICOM countries, not just Guyana, are by no means clever in seeking to cover up a diplomatic 'faux pas', (or was it?), by its Foreign Minister, Vincente Rangel, about "oil having been used as a political weapon throughout history". That observation by Rangel was in pointed reference to a question by Venezuela's `El Universal' newspaper on why Guyana was not included among Caribbean countries invited to benefit from the `Caracas Energy Accord'. His explanation, as reported in 'El Universal' on October 2, was that the reason for Guyana's exclusion was because "we (Venezuela) have conversation of a different kind" with that (Guyana) country. It was not until October 16 - the very day the CARICOM Bureau was meeting in Barbados and had on its agenda the controversy about Venezuela's proposed preferential oil accord for some Caribbean and Central American states - was a "non-official translation" of a letter sent by Rangel to CARICOM's Secretary General Edwin Carrington, made available by the Venezuelan embassy in Georgetown. By then, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Percival Patterson, was informing the media about the background to the proposed Caracas Energy Accord and his own government's decision to accept the offer as one of the original beneficiary countries under the existing `San Jose Accord'. But, as was stated, without in any way compromising Jamaica's and the rest of CARICOM's consistent support for Guyana in rejecting Venezuela's claim to some two thirds of its territory. Media reports in some CARICOM states had wrongly conveyed the impression that Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda were being unrealistic in not opting to accept the `Caracas Energy Accord'. Further, that they were being unreasonable in asking the rest of CARICOM to make a sacrifice by rejecting the concessionary accord from Venezuela at a time of soaring oil prices that were only adding to the heavy economic burden of all oil importers in the region. The truth, of course, is that neither Antigua and Barbuda nor Guyana had anything to "reject" since they had received NO official offer to participate in the `Caracas Energy Accord'. In his letter to CARICOM's Chairman, James Mitchell, on October 6, the President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, simply drew to the Community's attention the political implications of Foreign Minister Rangel's statement about "oil as a political weapon" in reference to why Guyana was not among the countries invited to participate. For his part, Prime Minister Lester Bird of Antigua and Barbuda had called on CARICOM governments on October 7 - day after Jagdeo's appeal to CARICOM - to be wary in accepting Venezuela's oil offer in view of the reported "oil-as-a-weapon" linkage made by its Foreign Minister. Last Thursday (October 19), Bird wrote Prime Minister Basdeo Panday urging that his government establish a special petroleum exporting regime for CARICOM importing countries of the commodity with concessionary conditions and that the regime should "preserve and protect our sovereignty more effectively". Bird, whose government, like that of Patterson's in Jamaica, is one of the two represented on the special Commonwealth group monitoring Guyana-Venezuela developments, has also critically questioned the decision of the CARICOM Bureau on the `Caracas Energy Accord' at its October 16 meeting in Barbados. In a press release issued at the conclusion of that meeting, the Community Secretariat said that the Bureau "welcomed the inclusive spirit" in which the concessionary oil offer was proposed by President Hugo Chavez when he met with Community leaders in Tobago during the 1997 CARICOM Summit. Strangely, while taking "note" of a public statement by the Foreign Minister of Venezuela that, it said, "confirmed that access to the (Venezuelan) facility is open to other CARICOM states", the release made no mention of the concern outlined by Guyana in President Jagdeo's October 6 letter to the Community's chairman, Prime Minister Mitchell. Or, whether any clarification was provided by Caracas to the contentious statement attributed to Foreign Minister Rangel about oil "as a political weapon". There is an inescapable question of relevance, in view of the CARICOM Bureau's statement and reference to Chavez's offer dating back to the 1997 CARICOM Summit to provide oil on concessionary terms to CARICOM countries to cushion the economic pressures of costly oil imports: That is, why was the offer initially made only to the five Caribbean states - Jamaica, Belize, Barbados, Dominican Republic and Haiti - and now, for the first time, Cuba - that have traditionally been among the 11 Caribbean and Central American countries to benefit from the existing `San Jose Accord'? Mexico's objection to Cuba being included in the San Jose Accord resulted in Venezuela devising its own Accord. Some of the concessions appear more generous than what obtain under the San Jose Accord. Cuba is scheduled to sign the Caracas Accord later this week. For all practical purposes, the `Caracas Energy Accord' with Cuba as a beneficiary, is a NEW mechanism that complements that signed in the Costa Rican capital, San Jose, some years ago. Why, therefore, did the Chavez government choose to adopt an apparent two-track approach in entering into new bilateral agreements with Caribbean and Central American states - some now, others in the future - without officially inviting ALL of the CARICOM partners to apply as potential beneficiaries, with conditions to be mutually agreed? As events have proven - the one-group-now-and-"others" later approach was to generate more confusion and, in the particular case of Guyana, suspicion, when the Venezuelan Foreign Minister made his controversial reference to Guyana's exclusion. Guyana is well aware, that sacrifice is involved - costly at this time of escalating oil prices - to demonstrate practical solidarity against exclusion of any member state based on political considerations. Territorial sovereignty in the case of Guyana. Therefore, it cannot, and has not, insisted on any CARICOM partner rejecting Venezuela's concessionary oil facility. What it and Antigua and Barbuda have argued for - but not reflected in the CARICOM Bureau's decision - is for a collective response of inclusivity, for ALL the Community states to be invited to participate in the `Caracas Energy Accord'. As of now, the reality is that while those beneficiary countries under the San Jose Accord were invited to Caracas for last week's signing ceremony, and a few others have since been given the nod to apply, others are yet to receive any official communication to benefit from the `Caracas Energy Accord'. The testing of CARICOM's diplomatic resolve continues - amid the conflicting signals and some questionable official statements. Follow the goings-on in Guyana in Guyana Today