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A
decade of consolidation
Amílcar Morales García
Paris.—
10 years after its foundation, the Bolivarian
Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (Alba) has
been consolidated and today displays achievements in
regional unification, stated Bernardo Álvarez,
secretary general of Alba.
In an interview
with Prensa Latina, Álvarez highlighted that
the organization promotes a different kind of
integration, based on complimentarity, mutual
assistance and above all, a humanitarian vision, to
reduce social exclusion and poverty caused by
neoliberalism.
He added that
over the decade, Alba has explored various spheres,
among them food sovereignty, fair trade,
communications development with the creation of
Telesur and la Radio del Sur, and is now
working toward expanding future prospects through an
Alba-Petrocaribe alliance.
Alba was formed
December 14, 2004, with a declaration of principles
signed in Havana by the then Presidents of Cuba and
Venezuela, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez.
Bolivia joined
the organization in 2006, later followed by
Nicaragua, Ecuador and Honduras, although the
latter’s membership was suspended after the coup
which ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Dominica,
Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia and St. Vicente and
the Grenadines are also members of Alba.
The
organization was created during a vast neoliberal
onslaught, at a time when Washington was attempting
to impose the so-called Free Trade Agreement of the
Americas throughout the region, Álvarez recalled.
According to
Alba’s secretary general, U.S. ideologues tried to
convince our peoples of the impossibility of
alternatives and the importance of conforming to,
and complying with, the established order. One of
Alba’s greatest achievements was proving otherwise
and formulating a different path for development,
which today can be used as an example and
inspiration for other parts of the world, including
Europe, stated Álvarez.
Questioned
about current challenges, he mentioned the need to
strengthen the Unified System for Regional
Compensation, SUCRE, deigned to break with the
domination of the dollar in inter-regional trade.
"From zero we
have made transactions equal to almost 2,500,000
dollars, with the active participation of Venezuela,
Ecuador and Nicaragua," he stated.
Álvarez
commented that for the SUCRE to achieve greater
effectiveness trade must increase, for which a
general map of what is produced and bought in each
country is being created.
"This will
allow the trade flows to increase. We have to
remember that the world was made so that we wouldn’t
trade amongst ourselves, to block our relations,
which is why it was easier to go from any Latin
American capital to Miami, than any other city in
the region," he stated.
Álvarez also
mentioned the creation of the Alba-Petrocaribe
economic zone as a priority for the organization,
and its link to other regional organizations, among
them the Union of South American Nations and the
Southern Common Market.
Other
challenges include improving the coordination of
social movements, as they will be the ones to defend
the alternative development model. "It isn’t enough
to have progressive governments and leaders, we also
need a mobilized society and in this we have
advanced," emphasized Álvarez. (PL)
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