The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples' Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) is celebrating its first 15 years of existence today amid a political scene marked by the aggressiveness of major powers in Latin America.

This integration mechanism — founded by Cuba and Venezuela in 2004 and emerged thanks to the strategic long-term vision of revolutionary leaders Fidel Castro (1926-2016) and Hugo Chávez (1954-2013) — is being targeted by the aggressive policy of the U.S., whose goal is to impose its domination interests in the region.

According to internationalist Reynaldo Bolívar, the U.S. planned and still executes a brutal attack against nations that somehow maintain and develop bilateral ties with emerging powers like China, Russia, India, and Iran, among others; in addition to fostering integration projects under the Bolivarian doctrine.

In statements to PL, the outstanding Venezuelan academician confirmed that the goal of the U.S. imperialism is to undermine integration mechanism such as CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), UNASUR (Union of South American Nations), and ALBA-TCP itself.

“The impact of the attack has been strong,” pointed out Bolívar. “The U.S. went all in against those blocs through right-winged domestic operators by implementing destabilization methods against progressive governments in Latin America and the Caribbean.”

“Among them, the ALBA-TCP is still resisting, but UNASUR, for instance, ended up being broken up with the political prosecution that played havoc with the governments of the Partido de los Trabajadores (Workers’ Party) in Brazil along with the buying of conscience of Lenin Moreno in Ecuador, and the radicalization of Colombia,” highlighted the academician.

BOLIVIA, ANOTHER BLOW TO INTEGRATION

After the coup d’état orchestrated in Bolivia against the legitimate government of president Evo Morales, backed by Washington in collusion with the local right-winged faction, the de facto authorities announced the immediate exit from ALBA-TCP.

As part of its strategy to torpedo whatever attempt that entails the unity of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, the coup d’état joined the dossier of aggressions of the US government against the member countries of the body, such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

In light of this situation, during the recent meeting of its Political Council, held in Managua, the ALBA-TCP nations ratified their commitment with Latin American and Caribbean unity, through solidarity, political agreement and integration, as well as the defense of sovereignty and self-determination of the peoples.

'We see that ALBA-TCP is in the center of the plans to destroy those integration projects”, stated Reynaldo Bolivar, in recalling that recently destabilizing actions were carried out during the development of the elections in the Commonwealth of Dominica, together with continuous aggressions against Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua for years.

He added that the aggressions of the U.S. against the integration processes through individual attacks to the member nations also seek to revive the Organization of American States (OAS, by its English acronym) as a mechanism of regional domination and to position the group of far-right governments gathered in the so-called Lima Group.

ALBA-TCP, THE GREAT HOPE

The foundational principles of the ALBA-TCP flatly oppose the hegemonic aims of US imperialism in the region, by stressing complementarity, justice and cooperation.

Created with the fundamental historical aim of uniting the capacity and strength of the peoples that make it up, geared at building structural transformations and the necessary system of relations to reach comprehensive development, this platform also emerged as an alliance in defense of the independence, self-determination and identity of the peoples.

It is an initiative of marked humanistic nature that enabled to promote educational and health programs for the benefit of millions of people in several Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Based on the premise that trade and investment should not constitute aims themselves, but cooperation and solidarity mechanisms expressed in special plans for the least developed nations, the ALBA-TCP materialized grand-national projects and companies to unite the potential of the member states.

The programs boosted for the benefit of the peoples covered dissimilar fields such as food, environment, science and technology, fair trade, culture, education, energy, industry, mining, health, communications, transportation and tourism.

Reynaldo Bolívar assured that the ALBA-TCP is today the last great hope for the integration of peoples, as an example to follow for its political and economic stances in defense of sovereignty and self-determination.

With the ideas promulgated by heroes Simón Bolívar and José Martí, and continued by Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez in this century –he stated–, the important thing is unity to achieve the well-being of the peoples, a community of common interests as regards defense, politics, culture, gender; an alliance for comprehensive development.

CubaSí Translation Staff