CARICOM Bureau welcomes Caracas energy accord
The Bureau of Heads of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has welcomed the offer of the Government of Venezuela of an energy accord to supplement the existing San Jose Agreement, thereby providing additional support on a bilateral basis to several oil-importing countries in the Caribbean and Central America. Under the San Jose agreement, Belize, Jamaica, St Vincent, Haiti, Grenada, Suriname, and St Lucia were the CARICOM countries together with Cuba, which were named as beneficiaries. A communique, issued after the Bureau meeting in Barbados yesterday noted that the offer had been made by President Hugo Chavez when he took office in July 1999 and reiterated on several occasions, including at the historic South Summit in Havana, Cuba. "The Bureau noted that the Caracas Energy Accord, in the first instance, though directed to the original beneficiary countries under the San Jose Agreement plus Cuba, provides scope for other interested CARICOM oil-importing states to participate through bilateral arrangements." The Bureau also took note, the communique said, "of the public statements made by the Foreign Minister of Venezuela which confirmed that access to the facility is open to other CARICOM states who express an interest in participating under its terms and conditions. "Finally the Bureau considered the initiatives of President Chavez in favour of developing countries of the Caribbean and Central America to be extremely timely, given the recent escalation in oil prices and the continuing uncertainty arising from the situation in the Middle East." Guyana was excluded from the list of CARICOM beneficiary countries and interpreted remarks attributed to Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Jose Vicente Rangel, that its omission was based on grounds other than the fact that it was not a signatory to the San Jose Agreement. Rangel was reported as saying that Venezuela was having a conversation of a different nature with Guyana and that petroleum had historically been used a political weapon. President Bharrat Jagdeo wrote to CARICOM chairman, Sir James Mitchell, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines expressing concern about the omission of some member states including Guyana and the reason for Guyana's exclusion given by Rangel. He voiced his concern in the context of the discussion at the Canouan meeting of the CARICOM Heads in July and the recent development on Guyana/Venezuela relations, because of the controversy resulting from Venezuela's repudiation of the 1899 Arbitral Award which established the border between Guyana and Venezuela.
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