How Much of a Turn to the Left in Latin American Governance and Economic Policy?
The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) was established on December 14, 2004 by Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro. Tired of failed neo-liberal initiatives and Washington’s unfettered political leadership in Latin America, Venezuela and Cuba sought to create a regional alliance committed to social, political, and economic cooperation and equality. These changes were to add up to nothing less than a radical transformation in the way the region considers itself. Today, ALBA forthrightly promotes an anti-capitalist social and political agenda. Roughly based on the European Union organizational model, the new alliance proposes regional economic integration that is geared toward fighting poverty and social exclusion in its committed service to representing the public interests of the population. Chávez has defined ALBA as a “flexible model for the integration of Latin America that places social concerns in the forefront.” It was created in direct response to Washington’s Fre
