THE BOLIVARIAN ALLIANCE FOR THE PEOPLES OF OUR AMERICA PART II: THE IMPERATIVE OF ENDOGENOUS DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

In 1829, El Liberador of Latin America, Simón Bolívar, cautioned that the United States was '... destined by Providence to plague America with miseries in the name of freedom'. To counter this threat, in 1891, El Apóstol of the Cuban Revolution, José Martí, called for 'Our America to show itself as one in spirit and intent' and to struggle against 'powers in the United States-the Other America-from extending control over the Americas'. In June 1990 United States President George H. Bush launched the 'Enterprise for the Americas' initiative, intended to ensure US economic hegemony from 'Alaska to Tierra del Fuego' through the integration of the hemisphere into a regional competitive free market: a malediction which Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez intended to challenge with the inception of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas-ALBA-in-2004. ALBA became an 'Alliance', which is both, strategically, intended to progress human potentials, and tactically, a policy to develop the impoverished peoples of Our America. This article addresses ALBA as a political struggle to develop Latin America societies for the poor to have more.