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Latin American Program in the News: Will Chávez’s Latin American legacy continue?

Cindy Arnson

“I think it’s likely to continue and certainly continue in the case of Cuba,’’ said Cynthia Arnson

Latin American Program in the News: Will Chávez’s Latin American legacy continue?

Photo credit: Pedro Portal/El Nuevo Herald/MCT

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Analysts said they expect if Vice President Nicolás Maduro, who Chávez anointed as his successor, wins upcoming elections, the Petrocaribe program will remain in place — as long as Venezuela’s own economic problems don’t become insurmountable and the price of oil remains fairly stable.

“I think it’s likely to continue and certainly continue in the case of Cuba,’’ said Cynthia Arnson, director of Latin American programs at the Wilson Center. Maduro visited Cuba frequently during Chávez’s lengthy treatment for cancer and is close to the Cubans.

“There’s a real ideological component’’ to Venezuela’s oil subsidies, she said, and that will make it “very difficult to drop them.’’

Member nations pay only 5 to 50 percent upfront for the oil. After a grace period of one to two years, they pay the balance over terms of 17 to 25 years, at a 1 percent interest rate.

An end to such savings could spell disaster for any number of fragile Caribbean and Central American nations, which have used the money to fund everything from new roads and airport expansions, to social programs involving free food baskets for the poor.

In Haiti, for example, the savings from the Petrocaribe program financed 15 percent of Haiti’s meager $3 billion annual budget and account for 22 percent of the road and infrastructure projects, said Kesner Pharel, a leading Haitian economist.

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Read more here. Carried by Hispanic Business.

About the Author

Cindy Arnson

Cynthia J. Arnson

Distinguished Fellow, Latin America Program
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Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more