“Microphone diplomacy” is behind Caracas’ “snub” of Fernandez

Santo Domingo.- Venezuela-Dominican Republic bilateral relations continue “magnificently,” including the Petrocaribe oil agreement, despite president Leonel Fernandez’s recently scrubbed visit to Caracas, which the local media’s “microphone diplomacy” viewed as a snub by president Hugo Chavez.

Venezuela ambassador Alfredo Murga Rivas on Monday blamed “foreign interest” groups bent on hindering and sabotaging Venezuela’s friendships forged in the international community, for Caracas’ alleged questioning of the handling of the profits and Dominican Republic’s debt with Petrocaribe.

They’re “interests which maintain their hopes of damaging the relations with Venezuela. They’re not going to accomplish it. There’re magnificent relations between president Chávez and president Leonel Fernandez and soon, in the Conference of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, president Fernandez will surely meet with president Chávez and will have the possibility of expanding the cooperation agreements,” the diplomat said.

Interviewed by news source diariolibre.com, the diplomat said Caracas’ alleged annoyance with Santo Domingo’s delayed payments within the agreement stem from what he called “microphone diplomacy,” when such observations will always be stated via formal routes.