ALBA AS A NEOBOLIVARIAN CHALLENGE: PROSPECTS AND PROBLEMS

Abstract

The ALBA project (Alianza Bolivariana para las Americas -Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas)¹ undertaken by Cuba and Hugo Chavez's government in Venezuela is important not only in a bilateral sense (i.e., its significance for Havana and Caracas), but it also has larger implications with respect to the dynamics of integration politics in Latin America and US attitudes/policies toward the organisation's two leading governments. Unfortunately the efforts of this unique experiment in providing an alternative model for developmental cooperation have gone largely unnoticed outside the region. Neither the mass media nor the general public, especially in North America, seems to have any idea that ALBA even exists, let alone that it is seeking to mount a challenge to existing integration paradigms and in particular those neoliberal initiatives emanating from Washington. This article is intended to help in rectifying such oversights.