EDITORIAL: Chavez reached out to CARICOM

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - THE NOT SO UNEXPECTED NEWS came on Tuesday night of the passing of Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan leader for the past 14 years. He had become the standout figure in Latin America during his term in office, and forced many to either like him or hate him. There was no middle ground with Chavez.
Chavez suffered from cancer and despite the talk of having overcome the disease after extensive treatment in his beloved Cuba, it was clear late last year that things did not look good for an improvement in his health. The situation certainly became grim when he could not attend his own swearing-in ceremony, resulting in a serious divide among his supporters and opponents.
For us in the English-speaking Caribbean, Chavez did more than other previous leaders from oil-rich Venezuela. He obviously felt that the people of the Caribbean were important in his grand scheme of things, even if for geo-political reasons. The two examples of his reaching out to this region which stood out were: the preferential energy programme known as Petrocaribe and ALBA, the grouping which he had hoped would eventually be as important as the Organisation of American States (OAS).