Prime Minister Said Musa and Home Affairs Minister Ralph Fonseca left for Caracas, Venezuela today. Officially they will attend the 3rd summit of Petrocaribe where high level representatives, many of them Prime Ministers from the 14 member countries are expected to be in attendance.
Unofficially, they are expected to engage Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in discussions about a major assistance package for the government – beyond that $10 million grant that has been on the table since June. For the government, it’s considered critical to get that assistance before – or in time for the upcoming general election.
And while Musa and Fonseca are expected to have sidebar meetings with Chavez about a bilateral support programme, the real business - as we said - is PetroCaribe – and soaring energy costs. To our knowledge Belize has received two shipments of PetroCaribe fuel but no announcement has been made about its distribution or on sale.
