Hector Rodriguez, Vice-president of the Social Area Council of Venezuela, confirmed the Venezuelan government's commitment to maintaining its reconstruction efforts in Haiti and sent a message of solidarity to the Haitian people on behalf of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.

In an interview on TeleSUR [news channel in Latin America], after the inauguration of the new President of Haiti, Michel Martelly, Rodriguez declared that the Venezuela would "continue working for the dignity, the life, of this brother nation", so that Haiti would "keep moving forward".

"We have a historical debt to pay to our brothers and sisters in Haiti, because they helped us liberate our Latin America" declared Rodriguez, in reference to the support offered to Venezuela by the newly independent Haitian nation, which provided Simon Bolivar with financial aid, political asylum and Haitian soldiers during the wars of independence.

The Venezuelan and Cuban government was amongst the first to react when the earthquake struck in Haiti in January 2010. They directed their relief efforts by sending hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, as well as pledging to work with the Haitian government in order to build sustainable development missions. Since then, the Venezuelan government has sent more than 10,000 tonnes of food items, medicines and other...

Venezuela's ability to respond quickly was facilitated by the fact that the Bolivarian government was already considerably involved in providing development packages to the island prior to the earthquake. Most notably Chávez signed a series of significant agreements between Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela via the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) initiative in 2007. These agreements included US$80 million for an oil refinery, a US$56 million electricity plant, a US$4 million liquid gas plant, US$3 million for waste collection, and resources for a Cuban health care programme in Haiti more than 1,000 doctors.

In June 2010, the Bolivarian government also cancelled all of Haiti's debt with Petrocaribe, amounting to almost US$400 million. Venezuela currently maintains its humanitarian missions in Haiti from its Francisco de Miranda Camp, promoting sustainability and managing projects in agriculture, energy, transport and health.

HL/ HaitiLibre