Dear Presidents, Prime Ministers and Heads of delegations:

First of all, I would like to welcome you to this city of Cienfuegos, located in the centre of Cuba and widely known not only for its history and fighting spirit but also for its progress in the last 45 years. This has earned it a place among the most developed territories with the greatest potential.

We, the countries of the Caribbean Basin, are holding today a most significant meeting.

At a time when the oil prices have broken every record creating an extremely complex situation to most of the oil importing Third World nations, the member countries of PETROCARIBE are in a privileged position.

These countries enjoy the benefits of a mechanism giving them preferential access, at fair prices, to the energy resources that guarantee our peoples’ daily lives and prospective development.

It is, therefore, necessary that this initiative resulting from the spirit of solidarity of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its President, comrade Hugo Chavez Frias, is continually consolidated and fully developed.

The present world situation and the impact of the policies pursued by the big industrial powers are definitely conducive to reflection and comparisons.

There is no doubt that growing consumerism in the industrial nations has had and will continue to have a devastating impact on the planet, if it is not arrested.

In just a few years, that wasteful and polluting consumerism has depleted many sources of hydrocarbons that it took nature hundreds of millions of years to accumulate. It has also caused a climate change which is today a source of deep concern since entire nations could be vanished off the face of the Earth. Likewise, it has bred wars since no one doubts that oil control has been the cause of the invasion and occupation of foreign territories; and this danger is not over, yet.

But, as worrisome as the present consequences of these consumption patterns are the attempts by the industrial nations to export them to our countries, in order to turn us all into societies as wasteful and polluting as theirs, to turn us all into global predators of Nature.

The recent developments at the Conference of the Parties of the Kyoto Protocol held in Bali are clear proof that there are governments --particularly that of the country which wastes and pollutes the most— that are not willing to renounce the privileges they have forcibly appropriated throughout centuries and the plundering of the natural resources of the South countries, not even for the sake of humanity’s salvation.

At the present juncture, projects like PETROCARIBE which not only are designed and operate to ensure the energy safety of all its members and promote their sustainable development, become all the more relevant.

In the case of Cuba, a key element adds to the energy safety component: saving. During the last few years we have successfully worked to design and implement an energy-saving strategy which has allowed us to promote the rational and ever more efficient use of hydrocarbons.

We have carried out a true energy revolution, and the experiences derives from it have been successfully implemented in several sister nations and made available to PETROCARIBE thanks to the keen discernment, ingenuity and perseverance of comrade Fidel.

As some of our guests know, we have expanded our generation capacity by using the petroleum gas which was burned before, thus contributing to mitigate environmental pollution in a significant area in the country.

Another crucial element of this conception is the development of a program to generate electricity for domestic consumption using less fuel as compared to the former generation schemes of our thermo-power stations.

We have also installed more than 4,000 emergency generation sets in several vital centres which can now operate independently from the main grid if necessary.

Simultaneously, we have implemented national projects to encourage energy saving among the population; we have massively replaced highly consuming domestic appliances and bulbs with more efficient ones.

Besides, we have continued to work in the development of renewable sources of energy, namely, wind energy, biomass, hydro-energy, and solar energy, the use of which is increasingly growing in our country.

Solar energy has been particularly useful to supply electricity to schools, private houses and other facilities in very remote areas.

Up until the end of November this year, 31 projects to replace incandescent bulbs with energy-saving bulbs have been either completed or in progress in 13 member countries of PETROCARIBE, thus preventing major disbursements which would have been otherwise necessary to increase the generation capacity and the purchase of fuel.

Likewise, in the countries here represented, projects are being implemented to build, assemble, and commission more than 1,000 additional megawatts using diesel and fuel oil-powered generation sets, refurbish the grids, train technicians and specialists, organize the operation and maintenance of power stations, evaluate the use of renewable sources of energy and the energy potential, among many others.

We are confident that this Summit will contribute to further consolidate this highly beneficial meeting for all our nations.

At the present international juncture, thanks to the solidarity of the Bolivarian Venezuela, PETROCARIBE is much more than a fair solution to the serious energy problem facing small countries which lack hydrocarbon resources of their own. More than anything else, we see in this agreement a decisive step in the path towards a further development of all integration and cooperation efforts in our region.

Therefore, Cuba will continue to offer its modest and selfless all-out contribution to the attainment of this lofty and strategic endeavour. We strongly believe in solidarity, cooperation and the collective capacity to develop ourselves for the wellbeing of our peoples.

Thank you, very much.