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Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"I don't think we were too much concerned as to which of the two aspirants will ultimately be chosen. We honestly feel that Omar Figueroa is an excellent candidate. He has the advantage of having been working the area prior to his February convention win and thereafter. We feel that in all the circumstances the momentum clearly is with him and with the UDP."

And the UDP is unusually confident because, yes, the PUP has been caught off guard and must hastily put together a campaign, but also because of all that Petrocaribe money - which will pay for Christmas cheer and other pre-election spending programs in Cayo North.

But what if the Venezuelan government was forced to shut down Petrocaribe? That's what a number of international news outlets have been speculating might happen after world oil prices fell to around 79 dollars per barrel. At a recent OPEC meeting, Venezuela made a hard charge to have the oil producing countries cut production so that prices could go back up to over one hundred dollars. But the Arab countries refused and so the price per barrel is expected to stay under 80 dollars for a while.

That's bad news for Venezuela, which needs oil revenue to keep its people fed. And with many millions in lost revenue going to the Petrocaribe initiative, some speculate, it could be forced to shut down. We asked the Prime Minister about his possibility today:..

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"In the circumstances the Venezuelans have to moderate or even terminate the agreement until in fact there is some sort of return to the circumstances in which they pioneered it. We will have to understand. We will be grateful, but we will completely understand and we anticipate that there is very much that possibility. We of course have laid aside..."

Jules Vasquez
"A few hundred million..."

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"That's a little bit of an exaggeration, but we have as I indicated deliberately not tried to spend everything all in a rush for several reasons including the fact that we thought that a prudent thing was to lay aside a sort of rainy day fund. So if the program stops anytime soon, we have enough to continue with prudent cautious spending funded by the petrocaribe proceeds for a number of years to come."

Jules Vasquez
"But are you concern that it might affect you politically going forward in so far as you hope to ride the wave of this money into successive victories at municipal bi-election and general."

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Without a doubt this has represented a tremendous boost, but all good things come to an end, so we will manage - we will still do well. We will over time be able to fill the hole, so that's what it is."

Presently the government is believed to have around 60 million US dollars in Petrocaribe proceeds held as reserves.