http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/special4/article.adp?id=20050914072609990008


Venezuela Extends Oil Trade Deal to Caribbean
13 Countries From Jamaica to St. Lucia Get Preferential Treatment
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, AP

(Sept. 14) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has extended a preferential oil trade deal to 13 Caribbean countries in what he says is part of a plan to challenge U.S. economic domination of the region.

Under his plan, called PetroCaribe, Venezuela will soon sell up to 190,000 barrels of fuel a day to countries from Jamaica to St. Lucia, offering favorable financing while shipping fuel directly to reduce costs. It is expected to help those countries save millions of dollars.

Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, says the new plan is part of a vision of a "multi-polar" world no longer controlled by "U.S. imperialism." He sees it as part of an alternative for international trade based more on regional solidarity than U.S.-style free trade.

The plan includes a $50 million fund to pay for social programs across the Caribbean, similar to those Chavez has started at home with rising oil profits.

Chavez has emerged as a leading critic of the U.S. government and its proposal for a Free Trade Area of the Americas, saying that plan would simply help big U.S. companies at the expense of Latin countries by drawing away their natural resources while doing nothing to confront systematic poverty.

What lessons can we learn from this story?

To create greater harmony in the west african (or larger african region) by sharing key resources.

To create greater harmony in the west african (or larger african region) by sharing key resources.

How can we share what we don't have. Hugo Chavez is only doing that to garner some support from other carribean countries since he know he's a blacksheep in the US government book.