President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro
CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Wednesday October 14, 2015 – Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro will visit St. Lucia this weekend to discuss with Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony to ongoing and future areas of cooperation.
It will be his first trip to the island.
A 40-member advance contingent from Venezuela is scheduled to be in the island today, ahead of Maduro’s arrival on Saturday. Both countries are in the process of finalizing a programme of activities for the weekend trip.
St. Lucia will be the third Eastern Caribbean nation that Maduro will visit in the space of three weeks.
He flew to St. Kitts and Nevis and storm-ravaged Dominica on September 23. In the twin-island federation, Maduro, whose government provided EC$16 million (US$5.9 million) to finalize compensation to sugar workers who were affected by the abrupt closure of the sugar industry in 2005, participated in a ceremonial handing of cheques to those former workers.
Over in Dominica, he officially announced that his government would build 300 homes for people who had lost their houses when Tropical Storm Erika ravaged the island in late August.
The Venezuelan leader’s visits with promises of continued assistance and messages of solidarity come as it remains in the midst of a territorial dispute with another CARICOM nation, Guyana.
Venezuela has been laying claim to the vast mineral-rich area of jungle west of the Essequibo River, which accounts for about 40 per cent of Guyana’s territory, since the 19th century. Guyana says that after agreeing to relinquish the Essequibo following a ruling by an international tribunal in 1899, Venezuela backtracked on the decision. Caracas insists the 1899 ruling was unfair and the territory is still in dispute.
Earlier this year, Maduro extended Venezuela’s maritime claims after Exxon Mobil announced it had made a significant oil discovery in Guyana’s territorial waters.