U.S. Sanctions On Venezuela Are Affecting Caribbean Nations’ Ability To Pay For Oil

For more than a decade, an energy alliance with Venezuela guaranteed a stable flow of oil to desperate Caribbean and Central American nations as they purchased millions of barrels on preferential payment terms from the oil-rich South American nation. The generous deal — 60 percent paid up front, the remainder payable over 25 years at one percent interest — allowed nations like Haiti, Jamaica and others to use the savings to fund social projects for the poor and control pump prices at a time when $100-a-barrel oil prices threatened to gut government coffers. Then came the crushing crisis in Venezuela and U.S. sanctions. Now, both seemed to have accomplished what the U.S. had long attempted to do ever since the PetroCaribe oil alliance was launched by President Hugo Chávez in June 2005 with 14 countries: kill it. More…