Sixth ALBA Summit held in Caracas

The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA according to its Spanish acronym, was founded in 2004 as an alternative to imperialist and especially US–dominated “trade and cooperation” agreements. It soon expanded to include several countries of Central and South America, including Bolivia, Nicaragua and others. Besides, some other countries from the region such as St Vincent and the Grenadines, participated in the summit as observers. The island of Dominica became the first English speaking country to become a member of ALBA in January this year. ALBA held its sixth summit in Caracas, Venezuela, at the end of January 2008.

Its founding documents explain that ALBA is anchored in "cooperation, solidarity and complementarity as an alternative to the neo liberal model." It was drawn up as an alternative to the US–dominated “American Free Trade Agreements” which the US and its’ allies were trying to foist on countries of both Central and South America. Several concrete measures have been taken to increase regional cooperation based on real mutual respect and keeping in view the needs and resources of member countries. For example, in the fifth ALBA summit held last year, agreements were made for Venezuela to set up a joint venture with Cuba to produce 500 million tons of stainless steel a year, a Cuban-Venezuelan joint venture to produce 68,000 tons of ferrous nickel a year, to create a company in Nicaragua to produce aluminium for the Nicaraguan and Latin American markets, and for Bolivia to extract its huge reserves of iron and to build a steelworks and two cement factories in that country.

Continuing with this trend, during the sixth ALBA summit too several concrete agreements were made for development of the economy of member countries. For example, food processing industries and a cardboard factory are to be set up in Bolivia. As a result of the agreements reached at the summit, representatives of about 30 universities from Latin America and the Caribbean are promoting several syllabuses oriented to regional integration through an internal exchange of professionals. This was also an attempt to prevent brain drain to the United States, Canada and Europe, which is one of the main problems hindering scientific-technical development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Agreements are to be signed between universities of the region for this purpose. Cuba and Venezuela are to build an airport in Dominica, while the setting up of a refinery on that island was also under consideration. Cuba is well known for providing medical support, training and assistance not only to countries of the region but also to several other countries in need of it, and here again several new initiatives are being taken for setting up medical and nursing institutes in member countries with Cuba’s assistance.

The leaders of the member countries of ALBA are confident that this cooperation will lead to development and unity and at the same time help maintain their sovereignty. Bolivian Minister of Production and Enterprise Gonzalo Hurtado, for example said that fomenting production in the area of food is very important, given the world-wide environmental crisis and the impulse US government gives to the production of bio fuel, which has made prices of food products shoot up. The agreements made under the aegis of ALBA “coincide with our vision of an equitable and fair commerce", he said. Nicaraguan leader Rosario Murillo said that “ALBA represents a sunrise for the peoples, a dawn of humanity and brotherhood and true interdependent development”. Dominica's Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said that that his country stands to reap great benefits from ALBA. It thus appears that ALBA has now found a firmer footing amongst countries of the region to attempt to provide a viable alternative to imperialist–dominated trade and “cooperation”.