ALBA: The Best Alternative for the Unity of the Americas

July 18, 2022 Articles, cuba

By Alejandra Garcia, Journalist

ALBA Conference in Havana. photo: Yaimi Ravelo

Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua found an alternative and inclusive platform where they could freely express their ideas and advocate for a true Latin American union, contrary to the Summit of the Americas being convened by the administration of US President Joe Biden in Los Angeles. Ten days before the hemispheric meeting organized by Washington, Havana hosted the conference of the leaders of the ten nations that make up ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America).

As spokespersons for the countries that the United States tried to exclude from the meeting as if they were not part of the Americas, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua finally showed Washington an inclusive route to follow to achieve sustainable and balanced development in Latin America. “These are times to unite, not divide; to dialogue, not confront,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel affirmed during the ALBA Summit inauguration.

At the event, Díaz-Canel made it clear that the IX Summit of the Americas will be a setback in hemispheric relations if the US refuses to invite all the sovereign states of the continent. Although the Cuban president stressed that he will not attend the event under any circumstance, he assured that no country should be left behind just because of Washington’s political whim.

“I appreciate the stance of the Latin American and Caribbean countries that have rejected the White House’s attempts to disunite us. The Summit of the Americas should be for all the nations of the Americas, without exclusion, and not a meeting between the United States and its guests according to Washington’s political sympathies,” the Cuban leader commented.

In dialogue with the press, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros noted that “the ALBA meeting is our lifeboat. It will help us focus on working to improve life and achieve the development of our countries. ALBA already has a heritage, a clear doctrine of the relationship between our peoples. It can show concrete results of our work since its foundation on December 14, 2004.”

The leaders of St. Lucia, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines also took part in the event, some of them remotely. They offered their support to the demands of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela following Washington’s hostilities. St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Everard Gonsalves confirmed that his nation received Washington’s invitation to the IX Summit of the Americas. “However, I can assure you that I will not attend unless all of us get an invitation.”

In summary: the regional leaders agreed that it is time to build a great homeland, the one dreamed of by Simón Bolívar and Jose Martí, and this will only be possible through instruments of regional integration such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the ALBA- TCP.

“The United States has not yet understood that Latin America and the Caribbean have changed forever. We are strong. We are one.” Díaz-Canel concluded.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English 5/29/22