MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Castro joins Chavez at oil co. opening

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez moved Thursday to augment his nation's already close political and economic ties with Cuba during an official visit to the Communist-ruled Island.

Chavez, who has been at odds with Washington for some time, arrived in Cuba with a large delegation of ministers and businessmen ready to foster trade and other exchanges and to push forward with his Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas - ALBA - designed to counter the U.S.-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas.

The agenda for his visit includes signing about a dozen cooperation agreements - some of them in such basic areas as electricity and petroleum - and holding the first meeting with Cuban officials to discuss how best to implement the ALBA.

The ALBA "has been going for a while already. It's in development, we're in full development of it," said the Venezuelan leader in brief remarks to the press during an appearance with Cuban President Fidel Castro at the opening of the Havana office of the Venezuelan state-owned oil giant PDVSA. Giving Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) a presence in Cuba has been an important goal of both countries.

Caracas wants to turn the island into its operations center for the Caribbean, and Cuba has been benefiting from a significant increase in the supply of Venezuelan crude after signing a wide-ranging bilateral cooperation pact in 2000.

"We're putting a base of operations in Cuba," said Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez on Wednesday, adding that crude exports to the island at preferential prices have exceeded the 50,000 barrels daily specified in the agreement and now total some 80,000 barrels per day.

With the increase in petroleum supply to the island, Venezuela has become the main pillar for the weakened Cuban economy that, according to Castro, is now beginning to recover from the so-called "special period" into which it plunged after the crumbling of the Soviet bloc.

In addition, Cuba and Venezuela intend to increase their mutual trade, which official Cuban sources estimated at some $1.5 billion in 2004.

With an eye toward boosting bilateral commerce, the Banco Industrial de Venezuela on Thursday opened a branch in the Cuban capital with some $400 million allocated for joint trade operations on non-petroleum products.

Cuba is hoping to buy all sorts of consumer goods from Venezuela, everything from canned sardines to chocolate, clothing, furniture, electric appliances and more, all of which will be sold at subsidized prices at a chain of stores that is to open on the island.

To explore the possibilities of the Cuban market, more than 200 firms are attending the 1st Venezuelan Products Trade Fair, which will remain under way until Saturday in Havana.

In addition to business affairs, Chavez and Castro will have the chance to talk long and intently about the ALBA, the situation in Latin America and their mutual differences with Washington at the first meeting Thursday evening to discuss the implementation of the ALBA.

From going over the benefits of the ALBA, they will move to criticism of Washington's proposal for the FTAA at the special session of the so-called 4th Hemispheric Meeting against the trade pact scheduled for Friday in the Cuban capital.

Given seemingly intractable differences between the United States and Brazil, hopes for the FTAA project appear to be all but dead.