ALBA

Late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, founder of ALBA

The agreement was proposed by the government of Venezuela, led by Hugo Chávez[4] as an alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA or ALCA in Spanish, an agreement proposed by the United States), which never materialized.

This Cuba–Venezuela Agreement,[5] signed on 14 December 2004, by Presidents Chávez and Fidel Castro, was aimed at the exchange of medical and educational resources and petroleum between the two nations. Venezuela began to deliver about 96,000 barrels of oil per day from its state-owned oil company, PDVSA, to Cuba at very favorable prices. In exchange, Cuba sent 20,000 state-employed medical staff and thousands of teachers to Venezuela's poorest states. The agreement also made it possible for Venezuelans to travel to Cuba for specialized medical care, free of charge.[6][7]

When it was launched in 2004, ALBA had only two member states, Venezuela and Cuba.[7][8] Subsequently, a number of other Latin American and Caribbean nations entered into this 'Peoples' Trade Agreement' (Spanish: Tratado de Comercio de los Pueblos, or TCP), which aims to implement the principles of ALBA. Bolivia under Evo Morales joined in 2006, Nicaragua under Daniel Ortega in 2007, and Ecuador under Rafael Correa in 2009. Honduras, under Manuel Zelaya, joined in 2008, but withdrew in 2010 after the 2009 Honduran coup d'état.[9] The Caribbean nations Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Lucia also joined.[10]

Jamaica, at the invitation of Chávez,[11] and Mexico, at the invitation of Ortega,[12] were invited to join the ALBA countries. Chávez also invited the countries of Central America to join ALBA,[13] and invited Argentina to use SUCRE.[14] In the 11th Summit of ALBA in February 2012, Suriname, Saint Lucia and Haiti requested admission to the organization. Haiti was granted the special status of permanent member and the other two countries were named special members, while awaiting their full incorporation.[7]

In July 2013, Chávez was honored posthumously by the nine member countries of the group and special guests Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Suriname, Guyana and Haiti at the group's 12th Presidential Summit in Guayaquil, Ecuador.[15]

In December 2014, Grenada and Saint Kitts and Nevis were accepted as full members during the 13th Summit of the Alliance, which occurred in Havana, Cuba.[16]

Ecuador withdrew from ALBA in August 2018.[17] Bolivia's interim government withdrew in November 2019 during the political crisis,[18] but the newly elected government of Luis Arce rejoined following the 2020 Bolivian general election.[19][20]

Amid the international isolation Russia is facing due to the invasion of Ukraine, ALBA invited Russia to participate at the 2023 ALBA Games.[21]

Summits of heads of state and government

Summit	Date	Location	Country	Decisions
I Ordinary	14 December 2004	Havana	Cuba	Founding summit of ALBA. Cuba-Venezuela Agreement signed by presidents Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro.
II Ordinary	27–28 April 2005	Havana	Cuba	Attended by presidents Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro.
III Ordinary	29 April 2006	Havana	Cuba	Attended by presidents Hugo Chávez, Fidel Castro and Evo Morales from Bolivia, who joins the group. The TCP is signed.
IV Ordinary	10 January 2007	Managua	Nicaragua	Meeting coinciding with inauguration as president of Nicaragua of Daniel Ortega, who announces the entry in the bloc as fourth country member.
V Ordinary	28–29 April 2007	Barquisimeto	Venezuela
VI Ordinary	24–26 January 2008	Caracas	Venezuela	Dominica joins the bloc.
I Extraordinary	22 April 2008	Caracas	Venezuela
II Extraordinary	25 August 2008	Tegucigalpa	Honduras	Honduras joins the bloc.
III Extraordinary	26 November 2008	Caracas	Venezuela
IV Extraordinary	2 February 2009	Caracas	Venezuela	Celebration of the tenth anniversary of Bolivarian Revolution.
V Extraordinary	16–17 April 2009	Cumaná	Venezuela
VI Extraordinary	24 June 2009	Maracay	Venezuela	Antigua and Barbuda, Ecuador and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines join the bloc.
VII Extraordinary	29 June 2009	Managua	Nicaragua	Condemnation of the coup d'état in Honduras and demand of restoration of deposed president Manuel Zelaya.
VII Ordinary	16–17 October 2009	Cochabamba	Bolivia	The Unified System for Regional Compensation (SUCRE) is adopted.
VIII Ordinary	13–14 December 2009	Havana	Cuba	Celebration of the fifth anniversary of the bloc.
IX Ordinary	19 April 2010	Caracas	Venezuela	Honduras had left the group.[23]
X Ordinary	25 June 2010	Otavalo	Ecuador
XI Ordinary	4–5 February 2012	Caracas	Venezuela
XII Ordinary	30 July 2013	Guayaquil	Ecuador	Saint Lucia joins the bloc.
VIII Extraordinary	20 October 2014	Havana	Cuba	Summit to deal with the Ebola crisis.
XIII Ordinary	14 December 2014	Havana	Cuba	Grenada and Saint Kitts and Nevis join the bloc. Celebration of the tenth anniversary of the bloc.
IX Extraordinary	17 March 2015	Caracas	Venezuela
XIV Ordinary	5 March 2017	Caracas	Venezuela
XV Ordinary	5 March 2018	Caracas	Venezuela
XVI Ordinary	14 December 2018[24]	Havana	Cuba
XVII Ordinary	14 December 2019[25]	Havana	Cuba	Celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of the bloc.
XVIII Ordinary	14 December 2020[26]	videoconference		Celebration of the sixteenth anniversary of the bloc and of the rejoining of Bolivia into it.
XIX Ordinary	24 June 2021[27]	Caracas	Venezuela	Celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Carabobo.
XX Ordinary	14 December 2021[28][29]	Havana	Cuba
XXI Ordinary	27 May 2022[30][31]	Havana	Cuba
XXII Ordinary	14 December 2022[32][33]	Havana	Cuba	Celebration of the eighteenth anniversary of the bloc.

In August 2013, BBC News stated that "Alba consists of one oil-rich nation and various minnows wishing to benefit from its largesse" and that "there is little chance of the rhetoric becoming reality any time soon".[40] As the crisis in Bolivarian Venezuela began, President Nicolás Maduro called on other ALBA members to begin contributing, though the smaller members distanced themselves from the proposal since they only sought the benefits from Venezuela.[40]

In July 2018, President Lenín Moreno of Ecuador distanced himself from ALBA, stating that the organization "has not worked for a while."[41] In August 2018, Ecuador officially withdrew from ALBA.

Karen Longaric, appointed as foreign minister by Jeanine Áñez's interim government, announced the formal departure of the country from ALBA in November 2019 over "interference" in Bolivia's political crisis.[42]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas.

• (in English) Official website
• (in Spanish) Official website
• (in Spanish) Portal ALBA