WILLEMSTAD, (Reuters) – The leader of the Dutch Antilles said a base on Curacao used by the United States was purely for anti-drugs operations though Venezuela has denounced its use for spying and even threatened to close a refinery.
“We have good relations with Venezuela. Sometimes President (Hugo) Chavez makes comments, the same as he does with the whole world, but for me, we have to move on,” Prime Minister Emily de Jongh-Elhage said in an interview on Tuesday.
She added that Curacao’s aging, smoky Isla refinery remains vital to the Caribbean island but its operator, Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA, has not kept a deal to clean it up,
“PDVSA should comply with the clauses in the rental contract it has with Isla. The contract specifies they should do regular maintenance and they have not always complied.”
The complex, opened by Shell during World War I, puffs out clouds of toxins and contributes little to the island’s tax income, but supports many families through its 1,500 jobs.
A court on Curacao, the largest of the Dutch Antilles islands, last year ruled PDVSA must upgrade the refinery.
“The refinery must comply with the ecological norms prescribed by the law of our country,” de Jongh-Elhage added.
PDVSA has in the past said it would like to buy Isla, which is built on the site of an old slave market on the island of 150,000 people 40 miles off the Venezuelan coast.
But relations have deteriorated since Chavez last year said the Netherlands was complicit in allowing U.S. authorities use the Curacao base for flights to spy on Venezuela.
The comments by the Venezuelan leftist prompted his oil minister to say South America’s top crude exporter was considering ending its contract with the refinery, which would effectively shut it down.
The oil minister, Rafael Ramirez, has now, however, softened his tone on that, saying earlier this week that Venezuela remained “committed” to the refinery.
De Jongh-Elhage, 63, said the U.S. base has been on the island for ten years. “The facilities are used to combat drug-trafficking. It is explicitly not a military base.”
As an autonomous part of the Netherlands, rather than a fully independent country, all foreign policy decisions on the Dutch Antilles are made by The Hague, not the islanders.
The United States signed a series of deals in Latin America and the Caribbean to operate “Forward Operating Locations,” or small bases at existing airfields, for anti-drugs operations following the closure of a large base in Panama in 1997.
De Jongh-Elhage said she had unsuccessfully tried to meet with Chavez’s government and wanted to strengthen ties with Venezuela, the United States and all friendly nations.
