ALBA gets stronger with Honduran entry

Havana, (Prensa Latina)

Honduran and Dominican Presidents Jose Manuel Zelaya and Leonel Fernandez, respectively, called this week termed the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) as an awareness creation process in Latin America.

In speeches delivered at the 11th International Meeting on Gobalization and Development Problems, in session in Havana concluding Friday, with the participation of 1,500 delegates from 45 countries, the presidents said ALBA is destined to take the lead in regional integration.

The Honduran president highlighted in his second visit to Cuba in 2009 that the Cuban Revolution's model in that integrationist process shortens for us the most extensive knowledge to make dynamic progress in the integration we want.

The Honduran decision to join ALBA, six months ago, marked a turning point in the Latin American historic demands, said the president.

That authority is composed of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Honduras and the Dominican Republic.The regional changes that began in January 1, 1959 are a symbol of development for humankind and part of the ethical formation of the new Latin American society, he said.

We can see example of this integration we want to achieve in the aid given by Cuba to Honduras, where doctors from that small island have seen 20 million patients in recent years, and the 33,000 people that have recovered their sight, thanks to the Operation Miracle program of ophthalmologic rehabilitation.

To the Dominican president, Latin American and Caribbean integration is important to implement regional policies, especially in a context of global economic crisis.

Integration of the sub-continent is the best way to shape a common criterion about alleviating the effects of the crisis that should be expressed in the context of the United Nations. In the forum sessions, Caribbean Regional Bank Director John Silver criticized the proliferation of regional or bilateral free trade agreements that are seen as one more way to promote the developed countries' interests and undermine multilateralism and South-South integration.

The Meeting on Globalization and Development Problems was a good context to sign several cooperation agreements between Cuba and governments of the Dominican Republic and Honduras, being the end of over 40 years of isolation in collaboration with the largest of the Antilles.

They said their idea was to extend a partial agreement for an exchange of products among these States, and other agreements, including health, tourism, education, culture, and sports.