Defending ALBA and PetroCaribe

CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Mar 10, CMC – Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has defended the Venezuela-led Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of the Americas(ALBA) and the oil initiative PetroCaribe, saying these initiative had brought much needed socio-economic benefits to his country.

Addressing the Delegates Conference of the ruling St. Lucia Labour Party (SLP) in Choiseul, south–east of here on Sunday, Skerrit, who was among the first regional leaders to sign the accords, said that despite naysayers, Caribbean countries that are members of the ALBA and PetroCaribe were benefitting at a time of global economic crisis and challenges.

He told delegates he recalled the then Jamaica prime minister PJ Patterson informing him that “there is no way he is going to leave Venezuela without signing this PetroCaribe agreement because he understands the importance of it to the economy o Jamaica.

“The World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and some told us that it would affect our debt, but today the World Bank and the IMF are saying to us that the PetroCaribe agreement is one of the best things and we must keep to it because of the revenue it is bringing to our economy”.