Caracas oil offer `barely concealed effort to isolate Guyana' - Luncheon Stabroek News November 4, 2000 Guyana still deems remarks made by Venezuela's Foreign Minister about this country's participation in a new energy accord "to be a barely concealed effort to isolate Guyana.... " Dr Roger Luncheon, Head of the Presidential Secretariat told reporters yesterday that the financial and economic concerns of being excluded from the Energy Agreement of Caracas which gives partial low interest financing on oil purchases were not "at this time" paramount. But "the offer has raised in our mind the spectre of the diminution of support that the Guyanese nation has been receiving from CARICOM" in its border controversy with Venezuela. This, he said, could be seen in the differing responses to the offer and Guyana's remonstrations. At the announcement of the new agreement which is initially open to the members of the 1980 San Jose Accord, four of which are from the Caribbean, Foreign Minister Jose Vicente Rangel had mentioned that Guyana would not be part of the agreement because "we have talks of a different nature." Rangel also referred to the historical use of oil as a weapon. Clement Rohee, Guyana's Foreign Minister immediately appealed to the members of CARICOM to reject the deal which was to be extended to other Caribbean countries. But the CARICOM Bureau welcomed the offer without considering Guyana's concerns. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez later said Guyana was welcome to apply. CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington suggested this week that Guyana should apply for its inclusion if it wished to find out what its position really was. Luncheon hesitated to state whether Guyana would be approaching its neighbour. He only said that any examination and decision on the agreement would need to be seen through the government's perspective of what has already passed. Guyana has its own 15-year bilateral contract for Venezuela to supply petroleum products, which up to 1995 had a low interest financing component. (William Walker) Follow the goings-on in Guyana in Guyana Today