Chavez

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is expected in Jamaica next week to conclude the signing of a US$260 million loan to the Government for the next phase of Highway 2000.

President Chavez will also officially sign the acquisition agreement for a 49 per cent stake in Petrojam, the state-owned oil refinery, and the adjustment to the PetroCaribe Initiative which is now supplying Air Jamaica with 2,500 barrels of oil per day. Prior to this, PetroCaribe was supplying Jamaica with 21,000 barrels of oil per day with 40 per cent of the payments converted to loans for development projects.

RECENT POSTPONEMENTS

Following recent postponements, a Government source said the visit would go ahead next week. Acting Prime Minister Robert Pickersgill said he had heard discussions within Government of the visit but would not confirm what he said would be an arrangement between Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and President Chavez.

Yesterday afternoon an official from the Venezuelan Information Ministry contacted The Gleaner in advance of a visit which he said was yet to be confirmed, but might come within the next two weeks.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade said: "In the light of the recent postponement, a visit is always on the cards, and when it becomes a reality the public will become informed."

The upcoming visit of Mr. Chavez has taken on extra significance in light of Venezuela's bid for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, a move the United States opposes given increasingly hostile relations between the two countries.

Opposition Leader Bruce Golding has, as a result, said it would be against the national interest for Jamaica to support Venezuela.

The U.S. has been lobbying the region to instead support Guatemala.

However, CARICOM is likely to line up behind Chavez, given Guatemala's lead role in persuading the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to rule illegal the European Union (EU) preferential trading support for the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) banana industry.