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ALBA in its natural scenario
Nidia Díaz
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THE fifth anniversary of the constitution of the
Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America
(ALBA), which is taking place in Havana, could not
have a better prologue than the overwhelming and
impeccable reelection of President Evo Morales in
the elections of Sunday, December 6, which
constitutes an unequivocal signal that the process
of change that opened up at the end of the 1990s has
come to stay.
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Chávez, Fidel and Evo during
the event to celebrate ALBA’s first
anniversary in 2005. |
For
some, it remains a daring feat that Fidel and Chávez
signed the founding constitution of the ALBA, with
aspirations of success, on December 14, 2004. The
irrationality of the Bush regime was at its height
and Cuba and Venezuela were in the sights of the
many snipers that the empire had positioned south of
the Rio Grande to prevent others, equally daring,
from trying to undertake liberation processes in its
"backyard."
The
horizon at that time presaged storms and the
attempts of those who were already talking of
founding more just and equitable societies in which
solidarity and cooperation were the guiding
principles, could have foundered. Imperialism was
spending - and still is - millions of dollars to
discredit those who were already fighting to add
themselves to that possible world, but one that is
diametrically opposed to U.S. interests.
In
just five years, the Latin American and Caribbean
political scenario has steadily changed and, 12
months after the Havana meeting came the electoral
victory, with 54% of the vote, of the man who was to
become the first indigenous president in the history
of Bolivia, where the racism of the "camba"
oligarchy fell on him throughout the whole of his
first mandate in order to overthrow him. Despite its
million dollar resources and support received from
Washington, the pro-separatist Bolivian oligarchy
witnessed with anger Evo's re-legitimation in the
referendum via which it tried to revoke his
presidency, with figures in excess of the percentage
points Morales secured in 2005 when he was elected
for the first time.
Likewise in 2005, José Manuel Zelaya won his victory
in the Honduran elections. Coming from the
traditional and conservative Liberal Party, he
decided to lead his homeland in a new direction and
become part, with enthusiasm, courage and
self-determination of the integrationist process
underway. A position that the business and political
oligarchy found unpardonable and which resulted in
their premeditated move to remove him from power on
June 28, 2009, recorded as one of the most spurious
coup d'états in the history of Latin America. A
coup that aroused universal repudiation and, above
all, a demonstration of the false promises of the
new president of the United States, Barack Obama,
when he announced that his government would relate
to the region on an equal footing.
Twelve months after Zelaya’s victory at the polls,
in 2006, Rafael Correa and Daniel Ortega both
triumphed in the Ecuadorian and Nicaraguan
elections, respectively. In the latter country,
barely two years later, the Sandinista Front gained
a resounding victory by winning 109 of the 142
councils in dispute in municipal elections.
Indisputable results that U.S. imperialism is still
trying to reverse in order to place those instances
of power in the hands of the displaced neoliberal
bourgeoisie and thus weaken the political geography
of the Central American country.
In
2007, Guatemalans elected President Alvaro Colom
who, in his own way, has undertaken to correct the
inequalities and resulting violence in the interior
of the country and to develop an independent foreign
policy, to the point of having visited Cuba, an
unthinkable step for those presidents who were
docile and servile to imperial interests. With that,
he also demonstrated that the Central American
"banana republic" was being left behind.
In
Argentina, Senator Cristina Fernández, a woman with
a strong position in defense of her country's human
rights and sovereignty , was likewise elected in
2007, thus guaranteeing the independent stand in
terms of foreign policy initiated by her husband,
Néstor Kirchner who, together with the Brazil of
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the Chile of Michelle
Bachelet had reinforced the South American position
on the international scenario, while all were
attempting to construct more just and equitable
societies in their respective countries.
Equally worthy of mention is the 2008 victory in
Paraguay of former bishop Fernando Lugo, who brought
to an end more than 60 years of the Colorado Party
monopoly in that nation.
The
consolidation of the Bolivarian Revolution with the
reelection of President Hugo Chávez in 2006, and the
resounding victory of the constitutional referendum
granting indefinite reelection to offices open to
popular election, joins these sustained changes that
have been taking place in the region, where Cuba
continues to be a reference of resistance and a
vocation of solidarity and internationalism. This
year is ending with the reelection of the Frente
Amplio in Uruguay in the presidential elections, in
which voters demonstrated via the ballot boxes their
determination not to return to the past. The
resounding win of the Frente Amplio candidate, José
Mujica, an ex-Tupamaro and a living symbol of the
struggle for a better world, is an eloquent example
of the changes that have come about on the continent
in the last five years.
Five
years that have seen not only the advance of
pro-independence positions with the election of new
regional political leadership, but one where
integrationist mechanisms have been reinforced in
parallel with the ALBA, and with similar objectives.
Five years during which the empire has lost more
than a few battles and, in its desperation has
fallen back on wielding the politics of the big
stick in an attempt to end the abovementioned
advances. The return of the 4th Fleet, the
reemergence of fascism and the militarization of the
region with the establishment and extension of its
military bases in Colombia and Panama are examples
of the military option having weight in terms of
solving U.S. differences with its neighbors when
subversive interference fails to liquidate the
Irredentist position of the Latin American and
Caribbean peoples.
In
these five years, which have witnessed the birth,
advance and consolidation of ALBA with the entry of
Bolivia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, Dominica, St.
Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda,
plus the extension of its programs to the benefit of
other non-member nations, there have been other
significant events that serve as a basis and
guarantee of the common struggle for the second and
definitive independence.
To
highlight some of them:
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The creation of the Union of South American Nations
(UNASUR) as a consultation and integration mechanism
for all the South American countries, without
foreign interference.
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The independent and resolute action of the Rio Group
in relation to the Colombian-Ecuadorian conflict,
which made it possible to avoid an armed
confrontation between the two countries resulting
from the violation of Ecuadorian territory on the
part of the Colombian armed forces. A moment when
the need for a mechanism without the conditions or
dependence on the United States of the Organization
of American States was put to the test.
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Cuba's entry into the Rio Group, thus confirming
respect for, the political authority of and
confidence in the Cuban Revolution and the
independence of that group of nations on foreign
policy issues.
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The approval of the new constitution in Ecuador via
a referendum.
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The 1st Summit of Latin American and Caribbean
Countries on Integration and Development - without
foreign participation - in Salvador de Bahía,
Brazil, convened by president Lula as unequivocal
evidence of the region's maturity in the search for
regional solutions to problems affecting us.
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The reinforcing of links between Cuba and CARICOM as
an expression of our country's ties with its insular
equals.
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Closer and mutually advantageous relations between
the Chinese, Russian and Iranian leaders and their
important Latin American counterparts.
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The creation of the UNASUR Defense Council, the
objective of which is the construction of a South
American defense identity and the generation of
consensus to strengthen cooperation in the region at
a time when, on the pretext of combating drug
trafficking and insurgency in Colombia, the U.S.
government is tightening the siege of all national
liberation processes with the overt objective of
plummeting - like the bird of prey that it is - on
our natural resources that are necessary to its
strategy of domination.
Latin America and the Caribbean are convinced that
little or nothing can be expected from the new White
House occupant, who has demonstrated via his
ambiguous and gutless position in relation to core
issues affecting us that his administration is going
to repeat the aged and secular steps of arrogance,
intimidation and plunder that have predominated in
the conflictive relations that the United States has
maintained with the region.
The
celebration in Havana, Cuba, of the fifth
anniversary of the founding of ALBA, at a time of
dangerous lethality in regional relations with
Washington, has to be, and doubtless will be, a
message of the unwavering position of its member
states not to weaken in the struggle for the second
and essential independence, convinced that are not
alone. Together with UNASUR and other political and
economic integration mechanisms, we shall design
from our diversity the unity for which we have been
fighting for 200 years.•
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