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"Our Nations Have Always Supported the ALBA," Says Bolivian President

Havana, April 30, 2006. (ACN) Bolivian President Evo Morales said that Latin American peoples have always supported the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).

Morales made his statement after signing his country into the ALBA regional integration initiative being promoted by Venezuela and Cuba.

Along with Presidents Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, the Bolivian head of state also penned an accord to implement the Peoples Trade Agreement (TCP) in a ceremony held at Havana’s Conventions Center.

“Our nations have supported the ALBA since it was launched by President Chavez as an alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement (FTAA), a US-sponsored effort designed to re-colonize the Latin American subcontinent,” said President Morales.

“In the same way that the ALBA defeated the FTAA, the Peoples Trade Agreement will defeat the free trade agreements that the Bush Administration is trying to impose on our region,” he said.

Morales recalled that in his nation, some members of the oligarchy have insisted on negotiating a free trade agreement with Washington. In view of such a move he decided to launch the Peoples Trade Agreement, a commerce initiative that entails no marginalization and benefits the poor.

The Bolivian president said people have understood the meaning of the TCP and that he, along with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, has been considering how to implement the initiative and call on social and indigenous movements and all sectors to undertake the fair trade program, which is expected to become a source of employment.

“I am very impressed with this agreement,” said Morales, “and Bolivia will surely receive most of the benefits from the ALBA and the TCP.” He added that Bolivia has found unconditional support and solidarity only in Cuba and Venezuela, in contrast to some countries which are used to resorting to blackmail and threats.

“They have chopped Bolivia into pieces in economic terms,” said Morales, added that “they auctioned its natural resources and we are now considering the improvement and recovery of those natural resources; to change the neo-liberal and neo-colonial status of re-found our nation.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that the ALBA regional integration program continues to advance, as he referred to achievements in the social and cultural fields. These make a difference if compared to what the FTAA means, he said, calling the FTAA a tool of US domination.

Chavez announced that in the context of the ALBA program, Bolivia can rely on a $100 million credit line and that Cuba and Venezuela will also offer that South American nation their expertise and professional personnel.

Chavez said that thanks to the Cuban Revolution his country has experienced important achievements and recalled that Venezuela decided to make a change and provide South American and Caribbean nations with its oil instead of maintaining traditional practice of exporting to the United States, at times free of charge or subsidized.

Venezuela blasted the Cartagena Accord, which gave birth to the Andean Community of Nations, because some of that organization’s members signed free trade agreements with Washington, said Chavez. He warned that MERCOSUR must be changed if integration is at the center of interest of the South American economic bloc.

During the gathering at Havana’s Convention Center, Cuban President Fidel Castro referred to the 1961 Bay of Pigs mercenary invasion of Cuba and recalled that immediately after Washington cut off oil shipments to the island.

President Castro pointed out that the economic future of Cuba will not be tied to oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, but to energy saving efforts. He said that the United States, with only 5 percent of the world’s population, consumes 25 percent of the energy produced in the world.

Fidel Castro condemned the wars unleashed by the Bush administration as a means of gaining control of world energy sources.

 

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