International Videos

Venezuela, Haiti's number one partner, says Michel Martelly

CARACAS, VENEZUELA (defend.ht) - Haitian President arrived Thursday afternoon in Caracas where he will attend Friday and Saturday at the first summit of the community of Heads of State and Government of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAC). President Michel Martelly called Venezuela's most important bilateral partner of Haiti.

"I think the Haitians have come to know that cooperation with Venezuela is the cooperation number one, the one with the most donations and assistance to Haiti," said Thursday morning the former lead singer when he left Port-au-Prince heading an official delegation.

He emphasized the importance of his trip, which should give him the opportunity to discuss at CELAC Summit of strengthening the Petrocaribe energy assistance program the tripartite cooperation between Port-au-Prince, Havana and Caracas.

Also invited to ceremonies commemorating the Bicentenary of Venezuela’s Independence, Martelly must have bilateral talks with his counterpart Chávez and the presidents of Chile Sebastián Piñera, Dilma Rousseff Brazilian, Colombian Juan Manuel Santos, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina, Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Felipe Calderon.

In order to facilitate the negotiations, the presidents of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Senate Finance, Wencesclass Lambert and Jocelerme Privert, accompanied the presidential delegation which includes the Chancellor Laurent Lamothe.

In Caracas, the President was met at Simon Bolivar airport by the Haitian Ambassador accredited in Venezuela David Lesly, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister and Venezuela’ s top Staff, according to a release from the presidency.

Haitian President, who thanked once again the President Hugo Chavez and his people for their support to the Haitian people after the earthquake of January 12 in particular, places this journey in the context of strengthening bilateral relations with Venezuela and a closer tight with the other countries represented at the summit in such areas: environment, economics, finance and politics.

For his first day at work, she met several Venezuelan entrepreneurs are expected shortly to Haiti to explore possible investments in several areas.

This Friday, Haitian head of state will attend the summit with 32 other heads of state and foreign governments.

Before Caracas, the President Martelly flew a couple of weeks to Cuba for an official visit to Castro Brothers, the other representatives of the Latin American radical left wing.