Chavez not excluding Guyana from oil offer - newspaper report Guyana Chronicle October 26, 2000 VENEZUELA President Hugo Chavez has reportedly said he is not excluding Guyana from the cheaper oil offer to other countries in the region. A news release this week from the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) said this was reported in the Venezuela newspaper La Hora. According to the release, La Hora daily newspaper quoted Chávez as saying, "We have no interest in excluding Guyana and I think the Caribbean Community understands this and has applauded the Caracas initiative." Venezuela has officially informed Guyana about the concessionary oil deal it is offering some other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) members but the Foreign Ministry here has said it was not yet clear whether the offer extends to Guyana. Guyana, which has been importing oil from Venezuela with which it has a longstanding border controversy, had drawn the attention of CARICOM to its exclusion from the proposed agreement because of a statement attributed to Venezuela's Foreign Minister, Mr Vicente Rangel, that "petroleum has been used as a political weapon throughout history". Sources here felt that by excluding Guyana from the proposed oil deal for other countries in the region, Venezuela was using oil as a bargaining chip in the controversy over the Essequibo. Guyana is a member of the ACS and the association release from the Trinidad headquarters said ACS Secretary General Professor Norman Girvan praised Venezuela for the major energy agreement it signed with 10 member states. The accord was signed last week at the First ACS Business Forum, in Margarita island off the Venezuela coast. The Caracas Energy Agreement complements the terms of the San José Agreement, through which Venezuela offers special financial conditions to signatory oil-buying countries. "We are willing to study similar (energy cooperation) schemes with all other countries of the Greater Caribbean," Rangel told the forum. "We are neighbours and maintain a close friendship", he said, according to the ACS release. "You have demonstrated that Venezuelan solidarity with the Greater Caribbean is not just a matter of words, but of deeds," Girvan told Venezuelan President Chávez, during the closing ceremony of the ACS Business Forum, the statement said. The countries signing the agreement on October 19 in Caracas were Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haití, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic. Cuba is expected to sign this week and other ACS member states are eligible to apply for benefits under the facility, the statement said. The ACS said the accord will establish a scale of prices for setting preferential percentages for financing long-term, low-interest loans to each country, based on the amount of oil purchased. The quantum of loans amount will range from 10-25 per cent of the amount paid for the oil, depending on the prices paid, with a one-year grace period and repayments extending over 15 years. Venezuela's Ministry of Production and Commerce together with the Foreign Trade Bank, BANCOEX, were the organisers of the First Business Forum of the ACS. Guyana has briefed CARICOM on its concerns about the apparent exclusionary aspect of the Venezuela proposal. Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Mr Lester Bird, who has come out against the Venezuela cheaper oil offer that excludes Guyana, is urging Trinidad and Tobago to look at making oil and oil products available to CARICOM member states at concessionary prices. In a letter last week to Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, Mr Basdeo Panday, Bird says such a scheme would help member states better protect their sovereignty. Follow the goings-on in Guyana in Guyana Today