ALBA-TCP: 20 years of union and brotherhood!

Published at: 14/12/2024 09:02 AM

Twenty years ago, the determination of Commanders Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro brought a new dawn for Latin America and the Caribbean, by enshrining the birth of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA).

The institutionality of this mechanism, which is based on the brotherhood and solidarity of nations, officially emerged on December 14, 2004 when the presidents of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, and of Cuba, Fidel Castro, met in Havana and signed the protocols of their founding as a form of integration and union, based on an independent development model with priority to regional complementarity.

In April 2006, Bolivia joined and ALBA was enriched with the proposal of Peoples' Trade Treaties (TCP), instruments of solidarity and complementary exchange between countries aimed at benefiting peoples, contrary to Free Trade Agreements that seek to increase the power and dominance of transnational corporations.

In June 2009, the Heads of State and Government of the member countries decided that the organization should be called “Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America — Peoples' Trade Agreement” (ALBA — TCP).

Background

At the 3rd Summit of the Americas, which took place in Canada from April 20 to 22, 2001, President Hugo Chávez signed the final declaration stating that Venezuela opposed the proposal of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). A short time later, Commander Hugo Chávez, together with the Cuban president, Fidel Castro, were creating the foundations of what is now ALBA.

In December 2001, during the 3rd Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Association of Caribbean States, held on Margarita Island, Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez presented the idea of ALBA, as a proposal for integration in the different spheres; economic, social, political and cultural of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.

At present, this regional mechanism is comprised of Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenadines.

Mazo News Team