Antigua on Saturday formed a “strategic alliance” with Venezuela that will see Caracas taking a 25% stake in the West Indies Oil Company, setting up a regional bank and constructing a resort among other ventures.
It was the latest swing through the Caribbean by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro who has been on a campaign in Caricom to win support for Caracas’ position in its border controversy with Guyana. On Friday, Maduro clinched a rice deal with Suriname and he was scheduled to be in St Lucia yesterday. Visits by him and other senior government officials have already been made to other Caricom countries including Trinidad, Grenada and St Kitts.
Analysts have expressed concern that the deals that Maduro is making in Caricom will eventually weaken the solidarity that Guyana has always enjoyed in relation to the inviolability of its territorial integrity.
A release yesterday from the Office of the Antiguan Prime Minister, Gaston Browne said that he announced that his government has developed a new “economic paradigm in moving forward in its relationship with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela that will encompass taking the best aspects of capitalism to generate profits for the collective benefit of the masses.”
The release said that during discussions on Saturday with Maduro a number of “exciting initiatives … which would see profits being shared among the masses and not the wealthy few”, were agreed.
“Both Antigua and Barbuda and Venezuela share a common history with our leaders having fought for the liberation, independence and upliftment of our peoples. I pledge to continue in that tradition. That is why my government has been forced to think creatively and develop a new economic paradigm for the benefit of the people of Antigua and Barbuda. The purchase of the West Indies Oil Company, which was majority owned by foreign private entity is now 76% owned by the governments and people of both of our countries,” noted Browne.
Browne said that this new model will also be the guide for Antigua to be utilized as an example to transform the region’s PetroCaribe debt into an investment initiative that will generate profits for the benefit of both countries.
Browne said that the alliance will include the construction of a Simon Bolivar Resort, jointly owned by both governments; Antigua and Barbuda being the catalyst of a PetroCaribe Economic Zone; the establishing of the former US Base as a base of peace to create superior economic benefits for the people of Antigua and Barbuda and the creation of a regional bank to facilitate PetroCaribe investments in the future.
“This new vision, with the support of the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will assist in transforming Antigua and Barbuda as an economic powerhouse in the Caribbean. Failure is not an option. We pledge to bring all these projects to fruition,” Prime Minister Browne said, according to the release.
