ALBA (formally the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America)

ALBA (formally known as the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America in English, and the Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América in Spanish) is a confederation of Latin American and Caribbean nations that promotes heightened economic, political, and social ties between member states. The group was envisioned by former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez as an organized collaboration of Latin American states that would provide an alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) advocated by the United States. The proposed FTAA treaty was intended to create an economic zone encompassing most of North and South America in which trade barriers (such as tariffs or trade restrictions) were either loosened or eliminated entirely. Chávez hoped to establish a competing trade bloc that relied more on socialist principles than the strict capitalist methodologies that would drive the FTAA.

Since its inception, this organization has grown to include nations from throughout the Latin American and Caribbean regions. As of 2024, ALBA consists of ten full member states that have a combined population of more than seventy-five million people. In order to reduce the influence of the United States, a primary initiative of ALBA was to create a rival virtual currency to the US dollar called the SUCRE (Sistema Unitario de Compensación Regional) for use in creating trade deals between member states.

Brief History

ALBA (whose acronym means "dawn" in Spanish) began as a vision of Venezuelan leader Chávez. In 2001, Chávez announced at a meeting of Caribbean states that he intended to establish a compact between regional states that would fulfill an ambition of nineteenth-century South American revolutionary Simón Bolívar. Bolívar had called for the creation of a unified Latin American state before his death in 1830. Chávez was greatly inspired by the liberal-socialist philosophies of Bolívar, even going so far as to rename Venezuela as the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in 1999.

Despite a coup attempt in Venezuela in 2002 and a resulting governmental crisis, Chávez nonetheless followed through on his plan to start a Bolivarian-inspired alliance of nations. It began as an economic pact between the socialist-leaning governments of Cuba and Venezuela. Signed on December 14, 2004, the agreement was intended to ease the transport of goods and resources between the two countries.

Eventually, Venezuela and Cuba used their respective national resources—among them Venezuela's oil reserves and Cuba's state-trained medical staff—to fund various development projects and offer aid to sympathetic nations in the region. For instance, Chávez forgave a thirty-one million dollar debt in 2007 by Nicaragua. Chávez also funded the building of an airport in Dominica and agreed to purchase Bolivia's excess soybeans after the United States stepped away. All three countries eventually became member states of ALBA. Venezuela also funded development projects in the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean nations. While many of these countries have not joined ALBA as of 2017, such projects have been implemented with the goal of promoting greater sympathy for Venezuela's regional agenda. Such aggressive efforts have also led to conflict with other regional groups—such as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Andean Community, Mercosur (Mercado Común del Sur), and the Pacific Alliance—which have perceived ALBA as a rival to their own regional strength and economic development plans.

As of January 2017, the eleven full member nations of ALBA were Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Grenada, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela. Honduras was previously a member but withdrew in 2009 after President Manuel Zelaya, the country's biggest supporter of ALBA, was removed from office and Chávez mentioned the possibility of invading the country to restore him to power. At various times, Iran, Syria, Haiti, and Suriname have also held either observer or special guest status with ALBA. Ecuador announced that it was withdrawing from the economic organization on August 23, 2018. Bolivia briefly withdrew from ALBA the following year. However, it rejoined following its 2020 presidential election.

Overview

As an organization, ALBA seeks to promote greater cooperation, economic exchange, and market unity between all nations of the Caribbean and Latin American region. While the organization is only limited to less than a dozen states, it has nonetheless claimed progress in meeting several goals. For instance, ALBA's Miracle Mission has provided eye surgery to more than three million people to help improve or restore their eyesight. ALBA has also promoted the Cuban "Yes I Can" reading program to enable more than four million people in the region to learn to read. ALBA was also responsible for providing economic and medical assistance to Haiti after a major 2010 earthquake and to Gaza during the Israeli-Gaza conflict. To further its goals, ALBA has also created the ALBA Bank headquartered in Venezuela and the electronic SUCRE currency system, which is meant to be an alternative to the US dollar.

The SUCRE's name honors Antonio José de Sucre, one of Bolivar's lieutenants. Established in 2009, the SUCRE is used as a medium of exchange. It was meant to insulate the group's smaller economies from external forces such as rising oil prices. As of 2015, about one billion dollars has been exchanged using SUCRE.

Critics have argued that Chávez intended ALBA to serve as a possible political tool. ALBA was created in response to the failed attempts by the United States to expand the existing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into a broader free trade zone spanning the entirety of the Americas with FTAA. Not coincidently, Chávez's initial establishment of ALBA came within a year of the start of negotiations for FTAA. Critics have charged that Chávez pushed ALBA into serving as Venezuela's political arm for heading its anti-American agenda and foreign policy. As Cuba's influence had waned in the region, Chávez hoped to expand his own country's influence, while promoting an ideological alternative to long-standing American power.

While ALBA has successfully led to shifts in traditional economic and political relationships between various nations in North and South America, much of ALBA's influence has been dependent on the largesse of Venezuela. This charity and economic support have been limited on several occasions by various economic struggles in Venezuela's economy and Chávez's death in 2013. Chávez's successor as Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, has lacked the same influence. However, ALBA remains a persuasive force in Latin America and the Caribbean. ALBA's possible plans include offering increased health care initiatives and even possibly establishing a joint military force to secure peace and stability in member nations.

Bibliography

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"Bolivia Advocates for ALBA-TCP Unity to Counter Hegemonistic Attacks." ALBATCP, 14 Dec. 2024, www.albatcp.org/en/2024/12/14/bolivia-advocates-for-alba-tcp-unity-to-counter-hegemonistic-attacks/. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

"Bolivarian Alliance for the People of our America (ALBA)." GlobalSecurity.org, www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/int/alba.htm. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

de la Fuente, Erich. "ALBA: A Political Tool for Venezuela's Foreign Policy." Western Hemisphere Security Analysis Center, Florida International University, May 2011, digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=whemsac. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

Farah, Douglas. "The Advance of Radical Populist Doctrine in Latin America: How the Bolivarian Alliance Is Remaking Militaries, Dismantling Democracy and Combatting the Empire." Prism: A Journal of the Center for Complex Operations, vol. 5, no. 3, 2015, pp. 90–105.

Hirst, Joel D. "A Guide to ALBA." Americas Quarterly, www.americasquarterly.org/HIRST/ARTICLE. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

Mallén, Patricia Rey. "A Latin American Euro? The Region's First Steps towards a Unique Currency—What Is the Sucre?" International Business Times, 7 June 2013, www.ibtimes.com/latin-american-euro-regions-first-steps-towards-unique-currency-what-sucre-1296787. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

Muhr, Thomas, editor. Counter-Globalization and Socialism in the 21st Century: The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America. Routledge, 2013.

Nicholls, Alicia. "Is ALBA a Threat to CARICOM Integration?" Caribbean Trade Law and Development, 19 Mar. 2012, caribbeantradelaw.com/2012/03/19/is-alba-a-threat-to-caricom-integration-2/. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.