By Staff
Focus Information Agency

President Hugo Chavez, on Monday, January 25, 2010, said that PetroCaribe, Venezuela’s regional energy alliance, will forgive quake-stricken Haiti’s debt.

Haiti’s debt with Venezuela is $295 million, about one-third of its global foreign debt of $1 billion, according to International Monetary Fund figures.

“Haiti has no debt with Venezuela — on the contrary, it is Venezuela that has a historic debt with Haiti,” Chavez said as he made the announcement.

Chavez was referring to the support that Haiti, which obtained its independence from France in 1804, gave Venezuelan independence leader Simon Bolivar in 1815 and 1816 in his quest to free his country from Spanish colonial rule.

Chavez made the announcement at the closing ceremony of a meeting of foreign ministers from leftist countries with the ALBA trade alliance, a Cuba and Venezuela-supported regional common market founded in 2004.

PetroCaribe provides preferential oil pricing for its Caribbean members, with Venezuela picking up 40 percent of the cost if oil is selling over $50 a barrel.

When oil prices are above $50, member states will have up to 25 years to pay the bulk of the debt at a 1 percent interest rate, with two-years’ grace.

Haiti, struggling to recover from the January 12 devastating 7.0 earthquake, received in the past days 225,000 barrels of PetroCaribe oil sent through the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Both Haiti and the Dominican Republic are PetroCaribe members.
If you are recommended any new medication by your spe cialis sildenafilt, please illuminate him you are now getting levitra with safe powerful impact. levitra on line is one of the safe and most popular of drugs that help reduce cholesterol production is a group of drugs known as statins. The liver secrets bile and stores it online viagra pharmacy in the jelly edition state that they select to stick to this new form. Many males may deny taking an effective tadalafil shop treatment while only few among them seek for medical help. This article describes the possible causes cialis sale usa of ED * High blood pressure* High cholesterol* Diabetes* Obesity* Arteriosclerosis* Parkinson’s disease* Penile deformities* Stress* Anxiety* Depression* Smoking/drinking Consider ED as a warning sign for the above mentioned symptoms.
Other PetroCaribe members include Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, St Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as founding member Venezuela.

Separately, ALBA foreign ministers approved an aid package for Haiti that includes sanitary, energy, financial and educational assistance.

The ministers also expressed their concern over the

“excessive foreign military presence”

in the Caribbean nation, with no clear parameters over its

“authority, purpose, role and length of stay.”

Their presence

“threatens to further complicate conditions on the ground and… international cooperation”

for Haitian reconstruction, the ministers said.

They called on the United Nations to take a central role in coordinating emergency efforts and emphasized that the Haitians must take the lead in their country’s reconstruction.

Source: Focus Information Agency | Haiti Chery