ROSEAU, Dominica, Apr 10, CMC – Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has stoutly defended the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) and PetroCaribe saying they underscored a determination of a people to write their own script for their future socio-economic development.

The two Venezuela initiatives had been at the forefront of efforts by the late President Hugo Chavez as he sought to build an alliance among Central and Caribbean countries. But the moves had been criticised by countries like the United States that regarded them as plans by Chavez to spread his “revolution” across the hemisphere.

Skerrit, speaking at the handover of  two Venezuela funded multi-million dollar projects in Grandbay, south of here on Tuesday night, described Chavez, who died of cancer last month as ‘a  friend of Dominica...who at every turn played a very important and constructive role” in the island’s advancement.