The foreign relations ministers of Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, Roy Chaderton and Francisco Guerrero Prats, respectively, met yesterday in New York, to search for a solution to the impasse that has put a hold on Venezuelan petroleum shipments to the DR. The chancellors were in New York to attend the United Nations Assembly. El Caribe reports that the meeting ended with the diplomats agreeing to maintain permanent and direct contact channels open, although the Venezuelan decision to suspend petroleum shipments was not rescinded. The Venezuelan government of Hugo Chavez has accused the Dominican government of supporting an alleged conspiracy led by former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez from Dominican territory. Guerrero Prats, as reported in the Listin Diario, defended Perez’s right to reside in the DR, saying, “He has the right to be in the DR for as long as his stay is authorized, and we ask of him, as we ask of all those who enter the country, that he respect the laws by which foreign citizens must abide.”
In regards to Chavez’s accusation, Guerrero reiterated that the Dominican Republic would never allow any kind of conspiracy against a legitimately constituted government, and much less against the government of Venezuela.
The newly-appointed Dominican ambassador to Venezuela, professional diplomat Manuel Morales Lama, has not been able to present his diplomatic letters to Chavez, for which reason the DR does not currently have an official ambassador in Venezuela. On the other hand, the government of Venezuela called its ambassador in the DR to Caracas for consultations.
Meanwhile, Listin Diario reports that the president of the Dominican Petroleum Refinery, Amable Justo Duarte, traveled to Trinidad to increase purchase orders for natural gas sourced from that Caribbean island.