Introduction
As I write this concluding column on PetroCaribe, global crude oil prices have resumed their decline. Presently these prices are at a new six-year low, below US$45 per barrel. After a four-week hiatus, most analysts link this resumed decline to a world-wide shortage of capacity to store oil purchased by speculators on the cheap for later sale, when as is widely anticipated prices will rise. From Guyana’s perspective three basic contradictions of this initiative form the focus of this column.
To recall, at the November 2014 Caracas PetroCaribe ministerial meeting, Venezuela had announced its re-commitment to the
