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Monday, March 19, 2007
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in an extraordinary gesture of solidarity, has offered an Economic aid package to Haiti valued at just under 100 Million US dollars. Chavez explained that this gesture was in tribute to a longstanding cooperation between Hait and Venezuela dating back to 1817 when the President of Haiti Alexandre Petion, helped Venezuela to secure its Independence from Spain. By helping Haiti today, we are only giving back a small part of what we owe to this country," Chavez said This time around, Chavez is returning the favour by helping Haiti to free itself from the George Bush Administration, which he described as the cruelest, most terrible and most deadly empire the world has ever seen. As part of his goal to diminish the US influence on the Caribbean, Chavez has also been offering preferential trade agreements through the state owned oil company Petro Caribe. Officials in Haiti have estimated savings of more than 150 million dollars a year because of the Petro Caribe deal.
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