For 20 years, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA -TCP) has fought to create an anti-imperialist political, economic and social alliance in South America and the Caribbean. It was launched in December 2004 by Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, following the international co-operation that saw Cuba send doctors to Venezuela to create a universal free healthcare system in return for heavily subsidised oil. The two leaders pledged to develop regional integration and trade on the principles of solidarity, mutual assistance and complementary economic planning. ALBA has run literacy programmes, treated over 7 million cataract patients, created a regional bank, and between 2005-2019 established Petrocaribe to provide subsidised oil in return for goods and services. The founding of ALBA represented a beacon of hope and solidarity against the backdrop in that period of imperialist war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the kidnapping and overthrow of Haiti’s popular President Aristide and the intensification of US-backed civil war in Colombia.
Within a few years ALBA’s membership had expanded to include Bolivia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, Dominica, St Vincent & the Grenadines and Antigua & Barbuda. Sensing the threat that such an alliance presented, in 2009 US imperialism moved to install seven US military bases in Colombia, re-established the US navy’s Fourth Fleet to patrol the Caribbean and backed a right-wing coup in Honduras, resulting in the Central American country’s withdrawal from ALBA membership. Later, in 2018 Ecuador’s right-wing shift saw its exit from ALBA in exchange for closer ties to US imperialism, whilst Bolivia’s membership was briefly interrupted during the year-long coup of 2019. Despite this imperialist aggression, today ten countries are full members of ALBA including St Lucia, Grenada and Saint Kitts & Nevis, with Haiti as an observer member.
In January 2025, whilst at the world anti-fascist festival in Caracas, FRFI interviewed Jorge Arreaza, former Vice-President of Venezuela and current Secretary of ALBA.
FRFI: ALBA has just celebrated its 20th anniversary with a conference here in Caracas, what is your perspective about the challenges facing ALBA nations?
Jorge Arreaza: Our America is a continent in dispute: the total union of our peoples and natural resources would end this dispute. Two decades ago, Chavez and Fidel bet on unity, on integration. ALBA emerged as an alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas which sought a complete economic annexation of our countries by the US. Resisting this, the ALBA nations proposed unity and sovereignty. Because of this, ALBA has been targeted by imperialism since 2009. One of the reasons for the coup against President Manuel Zelaya was because Honduras had joined ALBA. At the same time we also witnessed increased aggression through economic warfare and destabilisation threats against Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba in an attempt to dilute ALBA, and to a certain extent the imperialists have been successful. Today Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, are making up for lost time. ALBA nations are committed to returning to the highest level of efficiency, relaunching social policies, trade plans and cooperation. ALBA is in a moment of resurgence.
Currently there are different proposals coming from the continent – that of ALBA, which has always been anti-imperialist and revolutionary, but also those from social democratic trends. Lula Ignacio da Silva in Brazil, for example, has not recognized President Maduro’s election and has blocked Venezuela’s entry to the BRICS alliance. In Chile, despite his leftist posturing, Gabriel Boric opposes ALBA. How are you reclaiming the revolutionary narrative?
ALBA’s political references flow from the liberatory thoughts and actions of Simon Bolivar, Jose Marti and Augusto Sandino. ALBA upholds these ideas today. Within the Latin American left there are many nuances. There is a social democratic left and there is a revolutionary left. To defend ourselves from imperialist divide and rule we must identify where we can work together or at least respect each other. But this is a continent in dispute, imperialist forces act to fracture us. We have two competing alternatives, the Bolivarian proposal for unity vs the Monroe doctrine of subjugation. Integration is the only way we can win.
Can you tell us more about the renewed effort to link the grassroots social movements within each ALBA country?
In ALBA there is a Council of Foreign Ministers and a Council of Economic Ministers which co-operate at the national level. There is also a Council of Social Movements which until now we had not been able to activate effectively. Today we are activating it, so that social movements can have a direct say in co-governing ALBA, proposing the policies and measures needed to drive forward the alliance in direct communication with the progressive governments of ALBA nations. This co-operation opens up many possibilities, for example creating brigades of teachers and doctors to fight illiteracy or lack of healthcare.
Britain has a long history of imperial oppression in Latin America, one that continues today, the theft of Venezuela’s gold in the Bank of England and the ongoing dispute over the Essequibo being notable examples. What is your perspective?
British imperialism did a lot of damage in these lands, especially in the Caribbean and the northern coast. Piracy emerged here. These pirates were not independent outlaws who acted alone, they answered to the British Crown, looking for treasure and land. We lost territories to British colonialism. The US empire simply inherited the principles of the British Empire. The stolen gold held in the Bank of England is another expression of this, it reflects the remnants of this colonial imperialism. I am sure that the British people do not all believe that their imperialist history has been beneficial for the world, nor support the imperialist actions of their contemporary governments in this new era. The important task is to maintain relationships between our peoples, demanding the governing elite in London to give back to Venezuela what is ours.
Long live ALBA! Venceremos!
Sam McGill
