Dear Dr Rowley,
Please be careful with the Venezuelan president. If you aren’t already, look at the news coming out of Venezuela. Read the articles in The Atlantic and The Economist. It’s awful. What is happening there is not just because of the bad economy but because of the mismanagement of the economy.
I am sure you were aware of the protests in Trinidad when the president came. What struck me was the number of Venezuelans in Trinidad! This speaks volumes about the situation there. You can ask anyone who has a shop in Port-of-Spain, Moruga, Cedros, San Fernando about the number of Venezuelan customers they see every day.
I understand that you want to help your country and theirs by making these deals with him, but don’t allow the deals to close your eyes to what is going on. I fear the consequences of this deal on the OAS summit to come. We have seen in the past how the majority of the Caribbean islands who benefit from Petrocaribe have voted in Venezuela’s favour because they fear the consequences of voting against.
How much longer can Petrocaribe last with the way things are there in Venezuela, I ask. I fear that the Jamaican Prime Minister has been, with all due respect, duped. Either that or he has failed to do his research. His comments about Venezuela needing to seek a solution to its problems through democracy reveals he knows little to nothing of what is going on there.
Democracy has almost disappeared. That’s what happens when the president controls the Supreme Court and uses it to prevent the parliament from governing. Of course, it’s all done “legally.”
GKCJ,
Maraval