KINGSTON, Jamaica - Last week's death of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, happened as the Jamaican Government was advertising its appointment of Dr Wesley Hughes, the former financial secretary, as manager of its PetroCaribe Development Fund.

_{This, for Dr Hughes, must have been an unwelcome coincidence that would likely have concentrated his mind not only on the substance of the job, but the importance that he does well at it. More broadly, though, the events should serve as a signal to Jamaican policymakers that they need to act with urgency to fix Jamaica's energy crisis.
It is not widely appreciated just how important a lifeline PetroCaribe - the energy initiative President Chávez established for Latin American and the Caribbean countries - has become to Jamaica, over 90 per cent of whose energy needs are imported.}