ISDS Case Map
ALBA
Bolivia's new left-leaning president signed a pact with Cuba and Venezuela on Saturday rejecting US-backed free trade and promising a socialist version of regional commerce and cooperation.
El gobierno boliviano manifestó hoy gran expectativa por la incorporación de su propuesta de Tratado de Comercio de los Pueblos (TCP) dentro del proyecto Alternativa Bolivariana para las Américas (ALBA).
Light Industry and Trade Minister María Cristina Iglesias reiterated the government's position that Colombia and Peru would have to abandon the bilateral trade deals they recently signed with the United States if Venezuela were to stay in the Andean Community of Nations.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is widely seen to be at the center of Latin America's transformation by building a regional trade bloc through the creation of ALBA and Venezuela's membership in Mercosur to oppose US dominance and its constant push for free trade agreements with Latin American governments. However, the true democratic debate has been silenced in this simplified two-sided fight between the projects of macho men.
The new political climate is favourable to projects for regional integration other than the US-led free trade area of the Americas, the most radical being the mutually helpful Bolivarian Alternative.
The decisive numbers of Evo Morales' election victory in South America's poorest country give him the legitimacy he needs to redistribute Bolivia's wealth in favor of the impoverished and excluded majority. But he faces enormous pressure from foreign corporations and international financial institutions to continue promoting superficial economic growth for the benefit of a small elite.
Anti-American demonstrators torched storefronts and battled police Friday in this Atlantic resort following a large, peaceful protest, spearheaded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, over President Bush's plans to revive a free trade accord at a regional summit.
The talks on a future Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) have divided Latin American states into different interest groups prior to the 4th Summit of the Americas to be held in Argentina on Nov. 4-5.
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has accused his US counterpart George W Bush of trying to restore the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which is a dead project, he asserted.
An apparently chance remark by a junior trade minister appears to have put Venezuela's Foreign Minister Alí Rodríguez Araque on something of a spot.
