PROGRESS INTO THE 21st CENTURY: THE BOLIVARIAN ALLIANCE FOR THE PEOPLES OF OUR AMERICA

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/41945940
• Pages: 116-127
• Published date: 01 July 2011
• Date: 01 July 2011
• Author: Ken Cole

PROGRESS INTO THE 21st CENTURY:

THE BOLIVARIAN ALLIANCE FOR THE

PEOPLES OF OUR AMERICA

Ken Cole

International Institute

for

the

Study of

Cuba

Abstract

According

to

Hugo

Chávez,

the

Bolivarian Alliance for

the

Peoples

of Our

America,

-

ALBA

-

is

'a

geo-economic, geo-political,

social,

cultural and

ideological space

that is

in

construction'.

In

this

article,

the

history

of

regional integration

in

Latin America

since the 1823 Monroe

Doctrine,

which defined the

imperial

ambitions of the United

States towards the

Americas,

is

reviewed,

and a distinction is drawn between

initiatives intended to

develop

Latin American

economies and those orientated towards

progressing

Latin American

societies.

Development

is a

political

struggle

for individuals to have more:

progress

is an

evolutionary process by

which

people

become more.

In

the

twenty-first

century

context of

capitalist

globalisation,

UNASUR

(the

Union of South

American

Nations),

an

initiative modelled on the

European

Union,

is a

development

institution,

and ALBA

is a

progressive

initiative intended to advance

human

consciousness,

ultimately evolving

towards a union

of kindred

spirits.

Keywords:

ALBA, ALCA,

Karl

Marx,

Fidel

Castro,

Hugo

Chávez,

development, progress

Prologue

On the 13 December

1994,

in

Havana,

Fidel Castro met

Hugo Chávez

(who

subsequently

became

President of Venezuela

in

1998)

for

the first time. 'Chávez...

spoke

with

passion

and

depth

about the

programme

of

the Bolivarian

Revolution

[in Venezuela],

and the

possibility

of

realising

the

dream of

[Simón]

Bolívar... the

union

of

[Latin]

America ...' (Elizalde

and Báez 2005: 47,

author's

translation,

emphasis

added).

This

meeting

was

particularly prescient. Already,

between

9

and

1

1 December

1994,

in

Miami,

the First Summit of the

Americas of the

Organization

of American

States had been celebrated.

Effectively,

this

began

the second

stage

of US

President

George

H. Bush's

June

1990 'Enterprise

for the

Americas'

initiative,

intended

to establish a competitive

'free market'

zone from 'Alaska to

Tierra del

Fuego'.

International

Journal

of

Cuban Studies 3.2 & 3.3 Summer/Autumn

2011