PetroCaribe is firmly advancing towards the integration of Latin American and Caribbean nations through mutual solidarity. The Summit of Heads of States and Governments from the Caribbean countries, founding members of PetroCaribe, was held in Jamaica, on September 6th 2005.

The summit was perceived in many ways to be perhaps the beginning of the materialization of Simon Bolivar’s (Latin America’s most famous liberator) dreams of integration among Nations. As a matter of fact, the meeting in Montego Bay was summoned by Caracas and Kingston as a tribute to Simon Bolivar on the 190th anniversary of the famous “Letter from Jamaica”, written by the “Liberator”, with reflections about the need to fight for independence and sovereignty in the Americas and the Caribbean.

At the Montego Bay Summit, the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, signed nine bilateral agreements on energy cooperation with the Presidents of Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, The Dominican Republic, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  and Suriname.

According to these agreements, Venezuela is committed to supplying the signatories with 77,300 barrels of crude and refined products per day. This amount excludes volumes that will be sent to Jamaica and Cuba. These two countries already maintain bilateral agreements with Venezuela. The Bilateral agreements signed at the Montego Bay Summit established the following conditions of payment: a two-year grace period before payment of the first installment and a 2% interest rate, which would be reduced to 1% if the price of crude increases to over $40 a barrel. The financing period is of 25 years.

PetroCaribe`s first Meeting of the Council of Energy Ministers was held as a preamble to the celebration of this Summit. The Meeting was presided over by the Minister of Energy and Petroleum and President of PDVSA, Rafael Ramírez. The organization decrees were approved, and the institutional foundation was established.

Additionally, new proposals were suggested, like the creation of Electrocaribe and a fund to promote various social programs in the region, which would make Bolivar’s integrationist dream possible: a dream defended by the Venezuelan State, which favors regional solidarity and fair integration as demonstrated by various initiatives like Petrocaribe.

We must remember that Petrocaribe is part of Petroamérica, a geopolitical tool that aims at establishing mechanisms of cooperation and integration using the energy resources of the Caribbean, Central America and South America, for the social and economic improvement of the people of this region. At the same time, both initiatives are embedded in the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas ALBA.

For further reference:
Petrocaribe in PDVSA.com