Alternative Integration in

Latin America
Carl Francis T. Castro
02-33458
Introduction
• The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA)
represents the first attempt at regional liberalization but on a new
vision of social welfare and equity.
• The fact that ALBA was spearheaded by Presidents Chavez, Castro and,
more recently, Morales, of Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia respectively, the
hemisphere’s 3 biggest bogeymen for neoliberal imperialism only makes
the tale that much more interesting.
• When US President George Bush turned up in Latin America to promote
the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), he was routinely
cold-shouldered; Chavez on ALBA was greeted like a rock star.
Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of
Our America (ALBA)
• 2004, Alternativa Bolivariana para las Americas, transformed in 2009
in Alianza Bolivariana de los Pueblos de Nuestra America – Tratado
de Comercio de los Pueblos (ALBA-TCP)
• Membership (10 members): Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba,
Dominica, Grenada, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint
Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela
• Pending Full Membership: Suriname
• Observers: Haiti, Iran and Syria
• Former Members: Honduras and Ecuador
What is ALBA?
• Its purpose is to join the capacities and strengths of the member-
countries, in order to produce structural transformations and the
networks needed to achieve an integral development
• It is a political, economic, and social alliance in defense of the
independence, self-determination, and the identity of its peoples
• ALBA does not harbor commercial criteria or selfish interests related
to business profits or national benefit to the detriment of other
peoples
• Solidarity, complementarity, justice and cooperation
Roots of ALBA
• Revival of Simon Bolivar’s “Big Homeland”
• Within the ALBA’s full title (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America),
“Our America” stems from Jose Marti’s concept -- referring to a Latin America and
Caribbean owned and governed by its people rather outside interests (Marti,
2008).
• ALBA’s foundation was a result of the anti-neoliberal backlash of the late 90’s and
early 00’s.
• Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s most of Latin America went through a period of
neoliberal restructuring in which public assets were privatized, regulation of
business was loosened and public services were slashed.
• These unpopular policies were thrust upon populations by military dictatorships or
via the economic coercion of external institutions such as the IMF.
Photo: Tanks in the streets of Caracas during the ‘Caracazo’ of February 1989.
The implementation of neoliberal policies led to a wave of protests and riots
which were brutally suppressed by the state.
Source: https://albatcp.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/3319297850.jpg
• However, through the 90’s the balance of forces appeared to be
changing as combative social movements and new political parties
rose up to challenge the neoliberal state.
• In many countries governments were thrown out through social
uprisings and new anti-neoliberal governments became established.
• This “pink tide” of new left or center-left governments, and a revival
of militant social movements, is the context in which the ALBA was
founded.
ALBA Model
• Explicit ideological component against the Washington Consensus
• Flexibility: special and differential treatment as a fundamental
characteristic
• Respect of sovereignty
• South-South Cooperation
• Regionalization of endogenous development
• State participation
• Facing asymmetries using complementarity criteria and cooperative
advantages and networks, creation of productive linkages
ALBA’s Grand National Projects
• Telecommunications: Created in 2005 as a “counterweight” to CNN, TeleSUR
is a Spanish-language regional news outlet headquartered in Venezuela, its
main funder, with contributions from other members. Its broadcast reaches
beyond Latin America and the Caribbean to parts of Europe and Africa.
• Banking and Finance: Venezuela founded the ALBA Bank in 2008 with $1
billion in capital. Seeking to serve as an alternative to the IMF or World Bank,
the institution does not impose loan conditions. The bank supports
agriculture production, energy cooperation, and has invested $170 million in
social programs related to education, culture, and health. During ALBA’s
eleventh summit in 2012, member countries agreed to contribute 1 percent
of their international reserves into the bank to fund development projects.
• In 2009, the bloc introduced the sucre, a virtual currency that would
be used for trade between members and put it into effect the
following year. Short for “Unitary System of Regional Compensation,”
the electronic currency would also circumvent the use of the U.S.
dollar. Transactions are conducted between central banks. This year,
member countries made 1,500 transactions worth 550 million sucre,
or $670 million. Though it’s not a member of ALBA, Uruguay
requested entry into the system to use the regional currency in March
2013.
• Oil: In 2005, Chávez established Petrocaribe, an oil trading bloc
through which Venezuela supplies Caribbean members oil at reduced
rates. Petrocaribe and ALBA are separate entities that have some
overlap of member countries, but plan to become closer. In January,
the Venezuelan government announced plans for an “economic zone”
between ALBA-TCP and Petrocaribe. The proposed zone’s objectives
would advance investment, trade, tourism, and development projects
between member countries of both groups.
• Social Programs: According to an official Venezuelan press statement,
the ALBA Bank has invested $170 million in social programs. These
initiatives range from elementary school education programs in
Bolivia, Dominica, and Nicaragua to scholarships for cultural research
and art exhibitions.
Conditionalities of ALBA Membership
• Support for its general principles
• Use of ALBA funding exclusively for the public sector (government and
state enterprises)
• Orientation of projects and social cooperation to disadvantaged socio-
economic sectors of the population
External Opposition
• ALBA governments face opposition from liberal and conservative parties
whose social bases mostly comprise of the middle and upper classes;
those who resent redistribution in power and wealth from the rich to
the poor.
• These opposition groups have relied upon economic coercion, extra-
parliamentary violence, and a return to military coups in order to
damage the progress of ALBA.
• Unsurprisingly, the US state has opposed the Bolivarian Alliance right
from its inception, labelling the ALBA an “axis of subversion” which
“must be confronted before it can undermine democracy” (Kellogg,
2007).
Buen Vivir: Inspiring Movements in South
America
• In the Andean countries of Ecuador and Bolivia, indigenous
worldviews that prioritize harmony with nature over economic
development have been enshrined in law.
• The Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008 declares “We...hereby decide to
build a new form of public coexistence, in diversity and in harmony
with nature, to achieve the good way of living.”
• This “good way of living” (or Buen Vivir in Spanish) is rooted in the
cosmovision of the Quichua peoples of the Andes, of sumak kawsay, a
kichwa term which denotes the fullness of life, rooted in community
and harmony with other people and nature.
• A defining characteristic of buen vivir is harmony -- harmony between
human beings, and also between human beings and nature.
• The ancient values that are enshrined in the concept of buen vivir a
radical departure from western conceptions of economic
development in favor of ecological principles.
• In seeking balance and harmonywith nature, buen vivir calls into
question the very concept of development
• Buen vivir evokes a sense of collective -- the fullness of life of the
community -- and so is different to the Western idea of “well-being”
which tends to focus on the individual.
• By enshrining Buen Vivir and the rights of nature in their
constitutions, Ecuador and Bolivia have taken a radical step in
reframing the place of humans in the world, one that many consider
to be vital for the global transition to a more ecologically balanced
future.
• In so doing, these Andean nations have fundamentally reshaped the
purpose of public policy and guiding principles of national planning.
Ecuador’s National Development Plan 2009-
2013
• sought to depart from a traditional neoliberal development model
towards implementing the principles of Buen Vivir
• The plan included a strategy for the development of a biopolis, a
society based on “bio-knowledge”, ecotourism and agro-ecological
products
• 4 Stage Plan: 1) selective substitution of imports; 2) use of clean
energy to consolidate the energy surplus; 3) diversification and
substitution of exports; and 4) deployment of bio-services and their
technological implementation
• The Bolivian Constitution of 2009 recognizes Buen Vivir as a principle
to guide state action.
• That same year, Bolivia led the UN General Assembly to proclaim April
22nd as ‘International Mother Earth Day’, and Bolivia’s 2011 Law of
Mother Nature was the first national-level legislation in the world to
bestow rights to the natural world.
The Rise of the Indigenous Peoples
• Indigenous groups make up a significant portion of the populations of
both Andean nations – in Bolivia, indigenous peoples form a majority
at 71%, and in Ecuador a significant minority at 43%.
• Despite this fact, in both countries, indigenous peoples have
historically been marginalized, with elites of mestizo or Spanish
descent holding the reins of power since the colonial period.
• In both Ecuador and Bolivia, indigenous groups had long campaigned
for the recognition of their rights and the protection of nature – but
their worldview remained marginalised until the early 2000s.
• Key to this rapid transition in both countries was the emergence of
charismatic leaders who championed the indigenous cause, and who
were able to draw together a broad coalition of both indigenous and
white/mestizo leftwing support.
• Evo Morales, an indigenous leader, was elected President of Bolivia in
2006 and Rafael Correa, a middle-class mestizo intellectual who
courted the support of indigenous groups, became President of
Ecuador in 2007.
• Once in power, both Presidents worked closely with indigenous
groups to introduce new constitutions that seek to reframe public
policy in support of the rights of nature.
Benefits of Buen Vivir
(Rapid Transition Alliance, 2018)
• In Ecuador, between 2006 and 2014, poverty decreased from 37.6
percent to 22.5 percent, and extreme poverty dropped from 16.9 per-
cent to 7.6 percent. In the same period, the Gini coefficient decreased
from 0.54 to 0.47.
• In Bolivia, when Morales took power, 38% of the mostly indigenous
population lived in extreme poverty, that figure has been reduced to
17% – taking 2 million people out of extreme poverty. Inequality has
also radically reduced, the richest 10 percent in Bolivia used to earn
128 times more than the poorest 10 percent; today, they earn 38
times as much.
• In the international climate negotiations, Bolivia and Ecuador have led
a bloc of countries that argue for the rights of Pachamama, oppose
market-led policies, and call for industrialised nations to repay their
“climate debt” to developing countries that are suffering the worst
effects of climate change. They have also called for the establishment
of a court of climate and environmental justice to prosecute States,
companies and people that damage the climate.
THE PINK TIDE
History
• the term pink tide did not originate from the scientific literature but was
coined by US journalists
• Latin American countries that were not automatically pro-Western (i.e.,
pro-U.S.), maintained friendly relations with Cuba, and/or wanted to
strengthen their relations with China were sweepingly categorized as pink
by North American wordsmiths.
• A pink tide is a political wave that turned toward left-wing governments in
Latin American democracies primarily in the 1990s and 2000s.
• This was a reaction to the unpopular attempts of neoliberal policies
including privatization and social spending, all which failed to fight poverty
and investment within the region.
The Second Pink Tide
• was kicked off by Mexico in 2018 and Argentina in 2019, and further
established by Bolivia in 2020, along with Peru, Honduras, and Chile in
2021, and Colombia in 2022, with the first left-wing president elected
in Colombia.
• Latin America’s second pink tide is a result of right-wing government
failures
• However, scholars and analysts predict that the second pink tide will
likely be much shorter-lived than the first.