Chavez declares start of 'love process'
Close co-operation seen as way to cool border controversy
By Patrick Denny
Stabroek News
February 20, 2004
Years of suspicion and sabre-rattling seemed to evaporate yesterday when the charismatic Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rolled into town forgiving debt, inviting students to come see him and officially declaring the start of a "love process" with Guyana.
More pragmatically, Guyana and Venezuela yesterday agreed to continue to pursue resolution of the border controversy within the context of the United Nations Good Officer process and Chavez said that was the only way to deal with the issue. The controversy stems from Venezuela's rejection of the 1899 arbitral award which settled the boundaries between the two countries.
At the same time he said that his government would be accelerating closer economic, social and other ties with Guyana. He explained that his government had taken a similar approach in putting aside its border controversy with Colombia.
President Chavez, facing the prospect of a recall referendum in Caracas, also gave a commitment to the people and government of Guyana that his government would not put any obstacles in the way of projects that benefit the people of the Essequibo. However, the Guyana government has agreed that sensitive projects other than water, roads, energy, communications and agriculture would be discussed within the context of the high level bilateral commission so as to find a way to structure them. Guyana has previously complained that Caracas has aggressively dissuaded important investors from the Essequibo including oil explorers.
Presidents Bharrat Jagdeo and Chavez announced these agreements at a joint press conference they hosted at State House which started some three and three quarters hours after its scheduled 5 pm start. The late start was as a result of the other engagements in the Venezuelan leader's programme running behind time right from the moment he stepped off the plane yesterday morning.
Another key agreement was for the financing terms for oil purchases under the Caracas Energy Accord to be adjusted so as to be compatible with its HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Country) obligations. As it stands, the grant element of the Accord is below the required 35 per cent that the HIPC obligations impose. The adjustments would include varying the interest rate and extending the period over which Guyana would have to repay the loan granted to purchase its supplies.
Guyana will also benefit from Venezuela's offer to cancel US$12 million in debt.
There are also agreements that the mandate of the high level bilateral commission would be extended to included co-operation in health and education and that the two countries would jointly seek international resources to conduct the feasibility studies needed to implement a Guyana-Venezuela road link.
The latter agreements are relevant to the promotion of the Bolivarian Alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas which President Chavez promoted in his speech earlier in the evening to a gathering that included parliamentarians, civic leaders and secondary schoolchildren at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel.
President Chavez, who has faced mounting domestic opposition epitomised by a crippling oil industry strike and a short-lived coup, declared that the Free Trade Areas of Americas, an initiative of the United States of America, was dead and would soon be buried. At the press conference President Chavez, who has attracted the wrath of the US government because of his close ties with Cuba, said that these were two key issues of the Bolivarian Alternative which emphasises improving the quality of life of the poorest people.
At a State House luncheon hosted in Chavez's honour, President Jagdeo said that the proposed trading area could pose great challenges to the economies of the region and could bring social ruin to small and vulnerable states, many of which are in the Caribbean. He asserted that it could only succeed if it brings equitable benefits to all countries in the hemisphere.
Chavez at the press conference said the co-operation in health and education and the road project in addition to the systems of micro-credits that would be made available to Guyana were contrary to the principles of "savage capitalism".
He said the agreement related to health and education involves Venezuela co-operating with Guyana to reduce illiteracy and the rate of infant mortality which Guyana's Minister of Health had informed him was now 21 per 1000 live births, down from the 28 per 1000 of four years ago. Chavez said that similar figures for Venezuela are 18 per 1000, down from 21 per 1000 of four years ago. However, he said the standard to emulate was Cuba where infant mortality is 6 per 1000.
Asked about the danger to an integration movement where there are border controversies among its members, Chavez said the objective of the co-operation programmes being pursued is to generate understanding and co-operation between the peoples of Guyana and Venezuela. That understanding and love they share would make it impossible down the road for any problem to arise that would hinder the integration movement.
As a start to this "love process", the Venezuelan president has invited the schoolchildren whom he met yesterday at State House and who had waited some two hours for his engagement to visit him in Caracas. That visit, he said, would begin on July 25 and would be an explosion of love to foster the understanding and co-operation that should exist between the peoples of the Latin American and Caribbean region. He said he had already received students from Colombia, Cuba. Bolivia and Central America who have already enjoyed this "very moving experience".
The students are to travel to Venezuela either by his presidential aircraft or military plane where he would welcome them and spend the day talking with them. The following day, he said they would travel to Margarita Island where they would enjoy the lovely beaches and where a group of Venezuela students would then show them the sights.
From Margarita, he said that the students could then be taken to the Venezuelan Andes where they would see Mount Bolivar and spend two to three days. From there they could be taken to Canaima which is about one hour flying time away, where they would see a waterfall which has a drop of 1000 feet, which dwarfed Kaieteur's 747 feet. At this point Jagdeo clarified that Kaieteur's drop was sheer unlike that of the Venezuelan waterfall. Chavez, who hosts his own television programme in Caracas, went on to say the pupils could navigate the Orinoco River and then visit his birthplace Barima State, of which his father is an elected governor.
Giving his view on the Bolivarian Alternative, President Jagdeo said that the region has serious problems which the current models of economic development are incapable of resolving. "We can all pursue different ideas in Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. But what is important is that we tackle the poverty and place the region on the world stage, where it could take its rightful place in the world."
Earlier in the day at the State House luncheon he observed, "Ultimately, the future welfare of our people lies in the greater integration of our hemisphere. This was the ideal for which the great Simon Bolivar fought and died. It must now be the ideal of all leaders of Latin American and the Caribbean if we are to guarantee the political, economic and social advancement of our countries. Such is the poverty that afflicts our societies that we have an imperative duty to reduce, if not eliminate, this pestilence in our midst."
Jagdeo said the major issues discussed in the closed door sessions were the Free Trade Area between Caricom and Venezuela based on reciprocity and the acceleration of the fight against drug trafficking; the Guyana-Venezuela road link and the framework for dealing with the Essequibo within the UN Good Officer process.
Chavez said that one of the important issues discussed was the role of the private media which in Venezuela had promoted the coup d'etat in April 2002 and had put all the mechanisms at the disposal of the coup leaders so that they could inform the world of the developments in Venezuela.
He recalled that the reaction of the Venezuelan people to the announcement that he had resigned included thousands surrounding the presidential palace and the military barracks. But the television channels showed movies and cartoons and not the carnage in Caracas which was the work of the coup leaders but the truth of which was now being revealed.
Moreover, he said that CNN shows only what its owners think that its audience should see of Venezuela and not what is the reality on the ground He declared that the private media are tools for destabilisation, used to mislead world opinion.