VENEZUELA’S PRESIDENT Hugo Chavez would like Barbados to sign on to the PetroCaribe Energy Cooperation Agreement, which allows Caribbean nations to have oil and petroleum products from Venezuela on a deferred payment scheme.
This is one of two wishes which new Venezuelan ambassador to Barbados Jose Gomez says Chavez has for relations between the two countries. The other is that Barbados be represented when the proposed grouping of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean Nations is formed.
After making a courtesy call on THE NATION’s Editor-In-Chief Kaymar Jordan yesterday, Gomez said he had conveyed the message in his meetings with Government officials during the Barbados visit.
He said Barbados had initially expressed concerns about payments to the PetroCaribe scheme, but he explained a new scheme had been drawn up which eliminated those concerns.
Late Prime Minister David Thompson had said Barbados would not shift towards the oil agreement with Venezuela and the agreement with neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago would remain intact. (GC)
