Chavez calls for meeting of ALBA
Chavez has called for a meeting of member countries within the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) regional trading bloc to come to agreement in preparation for the Fifth Summit of the Americas.
Representatives from ALBA are scheduled to meet in Caracas from April 14th to April 15th, shortly before the summit held in Trinidad and Tobago on April 17.
Members of ALBA currently include Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Honduras.
President Chavez has also said that he will use the summit to restore ties between Venezuela and the US, which increasingly deteriorated during the Bush years. “I’ll be willing to press the reset button,” he said during a recent visit to Iran. “I hope that will be the policy of President Obama,” he added.
This will be the first meeting between Latin American leaders and US president Obama.
Chavez has further criticised the exclusion of Cuba from the summit, saying: “It is the only country of the hemisphere excluded from the Summit of the Americas; this fact needs to be analyzed during the regional meeting. Cuba is part of Latin America. It doesn´t make sense that after having joined the regional institutions, summits and mechanisms, it is excluded from the Summit of the Americas.”
Tags: ALBA, Chavez, Cuba exclusion, Obama, Summit of the Americas, Venezuela
