In recent decades, regional powers have alternated between doting on tiny Caribbean nations and ignoring them.

But the tiny cash-strapped island of Dominica has found a friend in Venezuela after joining its ALBA organisation - an alliance which aims to promote social, political, and economic integration between Latin American countries and the Caribbean.

Dominica now receives millions of dollars worth of cheap oil to help prop-up an ailing economy. And officials insisting none of Venezuela's aid comes with any strings attached.

Al Jazeera's Craig Mauro reports from the city of Roseau in Dominica.