Hugo Chávez: "We Need Honduras"

Our relations with the world are not better with the south because we fight with the north, nor are they better with the north because we distance ourselves from the south.

-Arturo Corrales, Honduran Foreign Minister

Honduras Weekly
President Porfirio Lobo and President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela yesterday met to discuss the re-entry of Honduras into the Venezuelan-led Petrocaribe oil consortium. The two leaders were in Managua, Nicaragua, attending the inauguration of Daniel Ortega as that nation's President. Following the inauguration ceremony, President Chávez told reporters that President Lobo had expressed Honduras' desire to re-join Petrocaribe, which the country originally joined in December 2007 during the administration of President Manuel Zelaya. Technically, Honduras never left Petrocaribe. According to Congressman of German Leitzelar, the National Congress never cancelled Honduras' membership with the consortium, only its membership in the Venezuelan-led Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America (ALBA) political alliance. Mr. Chávez suspended Petrocaribe oil shipments to Honduras in July 2009 in response to Mr. Zelaya's overthrow on June 28 of that year.

"[President Lobo] told me that Honduras needs to return to Petrocaribe, and I agree. We have to arrange it so that things get back on track. We need Honduras to be with us. Who is Honduras going to be with? Who? The United States? Europe, with the crisis it has?" said Mr. Chávez.

Honduran government officials have sought to reassure the US that their negotiations with Venezuela and other South American countries on cooperative deals such as Petrocaribe should not affect Honduras' relationship with North America. "Our relations with the world are not better with the south because we fight with the north, nor are they better with the north because we distance ourselves from the south. They are our relations, and we have to manage them all at the same time," said Honduran Foreign Minister Arturo Corrales. (1/12/12)