Restart of Aruba refinery by CITGO Petroleum will tarnish the reputation of the Kingdom of The Netherlands and Aruba in the areas of human rights, integrity and sustainable development in Small Island Developing States
<ARUBA-9 June 2016>
The refinery in Aruba which until 2012 had been operated by Valero Corporation of San Antonio, TX (NYSE: VLO) has been for sale and the Government of Aruba has been in negotiations with CITGO Petroleum, a subsidiary of PDVSA to restart the refinery.
According to the Government of Aruba the final agreement is to be signed on Friday, June 10, 2016, in Caracas, Venezuela with officials of PDVSA, CITGO and the Venezuelan government attending.
When the Government of Aruba, PDVSA and CITGO sign the final agreement, it will be without the prior approval of the Staten of Aruba, the legislative body of Aruba.
With the signing of this agreement a long and non-transparent process will come to an end, which has been marred by contradictions in terms of conditions to be made applicable to the operations by the refinery plant by CITGO.
First and foremost there is the obvious and well-documented precarious financial position of CITGO Petroleum and its parent company Petroleos de Venezuela, PDVSA.
Sources close to the financial markets are speculating that the agreement to be signed with the Government of Aruba may be used as collateral to obtain a much needed restart loan to jump start the continuity of operations of CITGO and its parent PDVSA
Such an injection of fresh cash would secure ongoing operations and the restructuring of the Venezuelan state controlled petroleum industry to ensure the generation of revenues to avoid a default in the payment of government issued bonds in Venezuela that will mature in the second half of this year
The agreement negotiations were fraught with inconsistencies, delays, and concealment of vital details to the general public, the legislative body of Aruba and stakeholders requesting and or demanding more clarity on the ramifications of the agreement.
The environmental NGOs in Aruba, Rainbow Warriors Core Foundation, and the Aruba Marine Mammal Foundation and the two natural health and sustainable agriculture organizations Fundacion Centro Ecologico Aruba and Natural Care Aruba Foundation have vehemently opposed and condemned the negotiations and agreements.
PDVSA, embroiled in a long dispute with local Government authorities, and attacks by civil society organizations in Curacao for its apparent unwillingness to comply with more stringent environmental conditions for the operations of its Curacao Isla refinery has a dismal regional and national track record of environmental regulations compliance, in particular with regard to clean-ups after spills.
The environmental NGOs in Aruba, express their grave concerns, that in the absence of a framework Aruban environmental law, that regulates liability for environmental damages, the use of environmental impact assessments and compliance with international treaties for the use, transport and disposal of chemical, toxic and hazardous wastes, CITGO will be given an easy and very sweet deal, which will severely limit its environmental obligations,
In addition the signing of the agreement in itself will fly in the face of the carefully crafted image of Aruba as a vanguard Small Island Developing State on the cusp of the transition to an island fully independent of fossil fuels and with a 100% renewable energy base for electric power generation by 2020.
This image of Aruba, popularly known as Green Aruba , has been designed by enlisting the likes of Al Gore, Richard Branson and the Carbon War Room, and more than two dozen research institutes and universities spanning three continents, including Harvard, and American Universities in Arizona, Maryland, DC, South Carolina, Florida and New York .
And even Vice-president Biden recently posed at a photo op during the Caribbean Energy Summit with Minister of Energy of Aruba, Mike de Meza.
See: http://caribjournal.com/2016/05/05/joe-bidens-caribbean-energy-summit/.
The problem with this saccharine imagery of Aruba as a key player in renewable energy is two fold.
First there is the court case in Houston for corruption against Venezuelan national Roberto Enrique Rincon Fernandez for an alleged 1 billion dollars in bribes paid through his Tradequip company and related holdings in the USA.
See: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-usa-corruption-idUSKCN0US2CK20160114
Rincon has been indicated by the Dutch language daily newspaper Amigoe in Aruba as the central figure in brokering the negotiations between CITGO, PDVSA and the Government in Aruba by paving the way to all parties to meet at the negotiation table.
Rincon Fernandez, on several occasions provided the use of his private jet to transport Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios back and forth to Aruba.
Carvajal Barrios, detained in Aruba, based on an international warrant for arrest was later let go at the instruction of the Dutch Government in The Hague.
Both Carvajal Barrios and Rincon Fernandez have holdings and properties and business associates in Aruba.
See also: China, Oil and Cocaine-Shadow Play in Aruba
http://www.tenacitas-intl.com/news-post-7/
To make matters even worse, Aruba has been at center stage for the wheelings and dealings of corruption stemming from the Venezuelan mainland as indicated in a Venezuelan Panama Papers revelation about the Venezuelan offshore bank in Aruba, BBA Bank, owned by the Castillo Bozo brothers.
See:
and
During the VII Summit of the Association of Caribbean States, held in Havana, Cuba, June 2-4, 2016 Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands and Prime Minister Mike Eman of Aruba were In attendance, both representing the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Prime Minister Eman sat next to Nicolas Maduro in at least one session (see photos at the European Press Agency, http://www.epa.eu).
According to press statements made in Aruba, Eman met with Maduro and discussed the final details of the lease agreements to be signed by PDVSA/CITGO.
Neither Rutte nor Eman broached the subject of human rights in Venezuela, as it seems these took a back seat to vested oil interests, which are rumored to include those of the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell.
The final agreement to be signed in Caracas, June 10, 2016 will set the stage for continuing non-transparent dealings of Venezuelan, Aruban and Dutch Government officials at the expense of the island of Aruba, its environment, and the reputation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in both integrity and environmental issues.
But it can also be argued at the expense of the citizens of Venezuela, who, massively voted for change by assigning an overwhelming majority of seats in the Venezuelan legislative body to the Venezuelan opposition parties after a 16 year majority rule by Chavista socialist cadres..
Rainbow Warriors Core Foundation, together with 124 other international organizations issued a global statement calling for the revoking of the State of Exception and Emergency Decree in Venezuela.
See:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/06/06/venezuela-should-revoke-emergency-decree
It is now evidently clear that human rights in the Kingdom of the Netherlands are a secondary issue only to be used when oil and gas interests are not at stake.
By allowing the agreement to be signed in Aruba the Kingdom of the Netherlands is clearly showing a disregard for basic human rights policies in the international arena and for this reason alone The Netherlands should not be elected to take up the seat corresponding to the Western European and Others Group for the 2017-2018 period in the UN Security Council in the upcoming June 28 elections (See: http://www.nlinunsc.nl).
Either Sweden or Italy can be considered a more suitable candidate for the available seat in the UN Security Council.
Milton Ponson, president
Rainbow Warriors Core Foundation
Tel: +297 568 5908
