OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY: The Fallout From A Seemingly Sweet Oil Deal For Venezuela’s Neighbors.

“The fuel itself was never discounted. This was a public finance program,” Goldwyn says. In his estimation, what the PetroCaribe countries “got was a loan from Venezuela to buy that fuel over a very long term at a very low rate.”

Since the inception of PetroCaribe in 2005, 17 countries took part. They included the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Nicaragua and the tiny island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, with a population of just 50,000 people.

President Chavez claimed the program would free up government funds for schools, roads and other public infrastructure. His idea was that the money the nations saved by not paying full price up front would be parked in a local PetroCaribe development fund and could be used to finance social programs.

Jamaica stashed billions of dollars in fuel savings into a trust that handled the fuel debt payments to Caracas and offered discounted loans for local development projects. The Dominican Republic used PetroCaribe funds to offer subsidized electricity. But with little oversight and oil prices skyrocketing, some other countries used the long-term loans simply to keep gas prices low at the pump.

Critics say PetroCaribe suppressed the development of renewable energy, burdened these small nations with billions of dollars in debt – and spurred corruption.

Now that’s what I call real socialism.