ickly decided to invest $6 billion of extra annual revenue outside the country in foreign investments by setting up the Venezuelan Investment Fund (FIV) . Some $25 million was also sent to the Caribbean Investment Bank to expand Caribbean development and other loans were made to Central American petroleum importing countries so they could buy oil during the price hike. The Perez administration began expansion on all levels in all areas. The Perez administration visited Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy, the SU, Asia, Africa, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Japan. They also received diplomats from all over the world. Venezuela under the Perez administration converted to a rich third world country overnight. Perez took this opportunity to expand or reach to other third world nations of the world, depending on how one looks as it. Perez began speaking more and more about third worldism and ventures to unite them together to combat the first world hegemony. Many countries in the Caribbean and Central America began following the initiative by taking loans from Venezuela as a third world leader instead of the US. To such an extent that it was weakening the functionality CARICOM. Beyond finances, Perez moved into a more diplomatic role with Panama in trying to mediate a negotiation between the Panama and the US for the Canal. Perez also reached out to reunite Cuba with the rest of the OAS, although the attempt failed, Cuba would be incorporated by closer diplomatic relations with Mexico and Venezuela. Mexican President Luis Echeverria Alvarez (1970-76) and Perez joined forces as the two spokesmen for the union of Latin America against the US. Together they formed the Latin American Economic System (SELA) with headquarters in Caracas. This was an organization that was formed to share technologies between the Latin American nations as well as develop and protect the economies of the region (23 Latin American countries prom...
