President Danilo Medina travelled to the Venezuelan capital Caracas on Monday afternoon, 16 December, to attend the II Extraordinary Summit for Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) and Petrocaribe. The leaders are expected to move forward with the creating of a special complementary economic zone for the regional groups. “Venezuela supplies 43% of the of the 18 Petrocaribe member countries’ energy requirements and has thus created a geo-strategic space for cooperation and the defense of the interests of our brother peoples,” Venezuela’s Mining and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said motivating the meeting.
Today, Tuesday 17 December, regional leaders are scheduled to discuss a treaty to establish a common economic zone called Eco-ALBA that would enable ALBA to move toward greater cooperation with PetroCaribe and the Common Market of the South (Mercosur).
The events began on Monday morning with the 12th meeting of the ALBA Political Council, and will be followed by a ministerial meeting of PetroCaribe, the 18-member block formed around an energy agreement established by the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in 2005.
ALBA members are Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Ecuador, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Lucia.
Petrocaribe members are Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Venezuela.
Medina is scheduled to return late on Tuesday, 17 December. He flew from the San Isidro Air Force base on a private jet accompanied by the Ministers of the Presidency Gustavo Montalvo, Administrative Minister Jose Ramon Peralta, Interior and Police, Minister of Interior and Police Jose Ramon Fadul, and acting Minister of Foreign Relations Jose Manuel Trullols, and legal advisor Cesar Pina Toribio. Treasury Minister Simon Lizardo Mezquita and the Minister of Industry and Commerce Jose del Castillo traveled ahead on Sunday 15 December to prepare for Tuesday’s conference.
Although President Medina and President Michel Martelly of Haiti will both be at the meeting, Diario Libre reports that the Presidency has not given an official version on whether there will be a meeting between the two after the Dominican government said it was cancelling future talks regarding Constitutional Court Ruling 168-13 that establishes the criteria for nationality and the national foreigner legalization plan. Diario Libre reports the cancellation of the talks came after hostile talk by the Haitian President at a Caricom Summit.
The talks come at a time when Venezuela’s economy is said to be suffering from an increase in populist measures by the Venezuelan government. On Monday, 16 December, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Venezuela’s credit rating and warned it could cut them again given what it saw as the growing risk of an economic and financial collapse in the country.
http://presidencia.gob.do/comunicados/presidente-viaja-esta-tarde-hacia-venezuela-ir%C3%A1-cumbre-alba-tcp-petrocaribe
http://eldia.com.do/danilo-medina-viaja-esta-tarde-venezuela-la-cumbre-alba-tcp-petrocaribe/
http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-moodys-downgrades-venezeula-warns-of-economic-collapse/1811771.html