And when the OAS under a really bold secretary general, Luis Almagro, tries to bring the organization towards recognizing that Venezuela is no longer in compliance with the Inter-American Democratic Charter, he is not getting the complete assistance of the hemisphere, and indeed much Check over here of the Caribbean Basin has actually not accompanied that. And if you line up the votes, who voted in favor and who stayed away, you can do a quite easy one for one comparison based on who is a member of Petrocaribe. Therefore the implication of your question I think is area on, you understand, and that is why I believe when we discuss the Caribbean in Washington, usually we believe about it in the context of, you know, island countries or programs or social advancement, and all of these are really, very essential issues.
And the dividends pay off down the roadway when Venezuela itself is in the spotlight of the worldwide neighborhood. Then they have buddies that they can depend on and it pays dividends for them - What happened to yahoo finance portfolios. So I believe that at the end of the day that is a lesson frankly that we can find out, and I think we can construct toward reversing that course. Ms. Yearwood. I concur 100 percent with Eric. Venezuela stepped in at a time that was extremely essential for much of the region and now the region is quite paying the rate, whether it is in debt or other locations associated with votes and other requirements that they do as an outcome of the-- Mr.
Increased expenses in energy too now. Ms. Yearwood. Sorry? Mr. Sires. An increase in the cost of energy likewise. Ms. Yearwood. Oh, absolutely, definitely. And so I believe to the point, we are at an essential point now with the cost of energy being what it is with the U.S. energy supply going up and the area looking at methods to increase sustainable energy, whether it is through gas or getting the area less depending on Petrocaribe and able to make these switches to new kinds of energy is going to make a huge distinction. Mr. Sires. See, I don't believe things take place by mishap.
The other issue that I have is the significant boost of China in this area. You understand, we seem to be put to a lull of sleep or something since everybody seems to relocate and after that we respond. And we don't appear to capture these things till something like this occurs, you know, like Venezuela. So sadly, you understand, considering that I have been here we have actually been pushing-- and I understand Mr. Meeks and the other members that are here, you understand, this is an important region for us. It is an important area for America and we actually must focus.
They are going to go through the Panama Canal and they are available in and they toss money, you understand, at these small countries, which in reality they can't afford not to accept the money. So how much of influence is there now of the Chinese? And I know it is growing, however-- Ms. Yearwood. The Chinese impact, it is actually very intriguing to watch the way China has type of entered the region and the kinds of projects. Often it is a sports stadium - What does ltm mean in finance. I believe the recent, the Baha Mar ordeal in the Bahamas, you have actually seen the Chinese Government been available in in a manner that the U.S.
If a Chinese designer comes into a country in the area they have the Chinese financing and the Chinese Federal government behind them. Mr. Sires. And the employees. Ms. Yearwood. And the workers. And so you have actually https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/04/23/2021107/0/en/WESLEY-FINANCIAL-GROUP-REAP-AWARDS-FOR-WORKPLACE-EXCELLENCE.html effectively got a plan that the U.S - What happened to yahoo finance portfolios. can not-- the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and all sorts of other factors, the U.S. can not contend in regards to the types of investment that they are able to take in without type of having to do the due diligence behind it. And it is very welcome in a lot of locations, however what Baha Mar has shown us is that it can develop a really hard circumstance for the countries where they go.
Farnsworth. I believe Sally raises a really rental timeshare intriguing and crucial point in this context. Which of the following can be described as involving direct finance. You understand, the Chinese or Venezuelan model is a state-led design, so the capital of the nation, the leaders in the country can say this is what we are going to do. We are going to create Petrocaribe or we are going to construct a sports stadium or we are going to state that we are going to develop these projects, whereas the U.S. design is private sector-led design. And the disconnect here is that we are handling smaller economies, island nations, and in contrast of other financial investment opportunities in other countries in Latin America, much less around the world, these are economies that typically aren't going to draw that large financial investment other than in a couple sectors like tourism like we have actually been discussing. What the onus needs to be is to discover methods to clear and establish a seamless financial space between the U.S. and the Caribbean so that economic sector capital can work. There are chances. Last but not least, I would say that the Caribbean is ending up being a far more complicated location since of the modifications in policy toward Cuba, the cross-cutting trade arrangements such as CAFTA, et cetera, and we have to consider the Caribbean now in a larger sense. In regard to Haiti, I think really essential is its ongoing integration with the English-speaking Caribbean, since these are well developed democracies and it is a financial area which holds opportunities for Haiti and there is now quite a lot of Caribbean investment going into Haiti and vice versa.