Anthony L. Hall is a descendant of the Turks & Caicos Islands, international lawyer and political consultant - headquartered in Washington DC - who publishes his own Internet Weblog at www.theipinionsjournal.com offering commentaries on current events from a Caribbean perspective

“...contribute to the energy security, socioeconomic development and integration of the Caribbean countries, through the sovereign use of the energy resources.”

However, although I am loath to suggest that Chavez is selling snake, not crude, oil, I have grave misgivings about the viability of his initiative as an alternative to the FTAA and about its potential as a reliable source of “discounted” energy for Caribbean countries. 

And, to give added credibility to my concerns, I shall defer to what Caribbean360.com reported as the rationale proffered by Bahamian Minister of Energy and Environment Dr. Marcus Bethel for his government going sour on this sweet deal:

“Whereas such a line of credit would benefit the Bahamas in short term outlay of capital and infrastructural development programmes, there exists some operational infrastructure challenges that would prohibit early implementation of such an agreement."

Notwithstanding Dr Bethel’s deft (technical) explanation - which would suffice as plausible diplomatic cover for any country disinclined to join PetroCaribe - it would be remiss of me not to refine his words for their plain (political) meaning:

In a previous commentary (please click here to read it), I lamented the failure of Caribbean countries to implement the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) agreement. But I criticized the Bahamian government, in particular, for contributing to this failure by being so imperious, parochial and self-interested in its negotiations. 

Therefore, if one appreciates the Bahamian attitudes toward the CSME, Dr Bethel’s “we’re interested but…” assessment of PetroCaribe’s value for the Bahamas is not at all surprising.  (Never mind that his predecessor, Mr Leslie Miller, seemed to have bought Chavez’s sales pitch hook, line and sinker.)  After all, the Bahamian government appears congenitally averse to regional economic integration and pathologically confident in its ability to negotiate bilateral agreements that offer far greater benefits for The Bahamas than any regional agreement ever could. And, any Caribbean native can appreciate that this is an attitude that has nothing to do with “operational infrastructure challenges”.

In fairness to my fellow Bahamians, however, as wrong as they are on CSME, they are right on PetroCaribe.  Because anyone who reads the fine print in this Chavez initiative will see that it’s less about regional energy and more about regional politics.  And, I fear, Caribbean citizens who were led to believe that PetroCaribe will deliver cheap fuel for local consumption are bound to be sorely disappointed. After all, there’s nothing in this agreement that provides such a guarantee...

Of course, this is not to say that the initiative is utterly devoid of benefit to Caribbean countries.  Since reliable sources indicate that former Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson leveraged his influence to get other Caribbean leaders to sign on to PetroCaribe so that he could extract concessions from Chavez for PetroJam: i.e., $500 million in funding to upgrade Jamaica’s oil refinery.

At any rate, Caribbean countries should be mindful of the significant geopolitical implications of this initiative. Especially since Chavez evidently regards it as a means of consolidating the political alliance he forged last year when he got Caribbean countries to abandon their traditional deference to the United States in order to support his candidate for president of the Organisation of American States (OAS).

NOTE:  The more intriguing dynamic afoot, however, is the extent to which Chavez is acting in concert with Venezuela’s new political godfather, China. Because it is undeniable that even more than he, Chinese leaders have been strategically buying up political influence throughout the Caribbean and Latin America in recent years. And, just as the former Soviet Union saw in Fidel Castro a willing (Cold War) proxy to antagonize America in its own backyard, China now sees in Chavez a useful proxy to further its political ambitions throughout the Americas and a willing conduit to fuel its economic needs at home... with oil!

ENDNOTE:  Perhaps I’m a little shaky on Chavez’s Bolivarian alliance because I’m still trying to recover my footing after Latin American countries placed Caribbean interests on banana peels during the EU banana trade negotiations a few years ago...