COMUNICACIONES / NOTICIAS
Caracas.- The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela salutes the brother nations of the Caribbean and Central America, signatories of the Petrocaribe Energy Cooperation Agreement, on the occasion of the thirteenth anniversary of this integration mechanism, which has been a fundamental pillar in the stability, energy security and socio-economic development of the peoples of the region.
Petrocaribe was born from the ideology of two great Latin American leaders, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez, and has become a platform of partnership for solidarity, that contributes to minimize the asymmetries in the access to energy resources, favors the capacity of the States to implement of sovereign policies aimed at eradicating poverty and improving the quality of life of the peoples.
Today, PDVSA and the 12 joint ventures that are part of Petrocaribe, have developed a key energy infrastructure for the region, whose storage capacity is 1 million 732 thousand barrels, and that can refine up to 70 thousand barrels per day. It has articulated a logistics that includes its own transport fleet of up to 980 thousand barrels. After 13 years of tireless work, 356 million barrels have been supplied, which have been the basis of the socioeconomic development of the region.
In the framework of Petrocaribe, the member countries have carried out 790 projects in the areas of food, electricity, education, environmental sanitation, public services, housing and health, among others, which have contributed significantly to the reduction of poverty.
Petrocaribe has been key in the fight against the economic war that Venezuela faces. As part of the payment of the oil bill, about 4 million tons of food have been received, that have favored the most vulnerable population.
Venezuela, under the leadership of President Nicolás Maduro, will continue to promote Petrocaribe as a strategic priority of its energy policy, based upon the principles of solidarity, cooperation and sovereignty, overcoming the aggressions and the economic blockade, unilaterally imposed by the United States Government, which seeks to push back the progress made by the Diplomacy of Peace.
Let us continue to move forward in the construction of solidarity and energy security of our sister countries.
Long live the Caribbean Union.
