The FTAA was running into reefs. Several Latin American countries, led by Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina — all members of Mercosur — refused to enter into negotiations that would exclusively benefit U.S. interests to the detriment of their own nations’ interests. The Doha summit failed, as a consequence of the refusal of the big economic powers (the U.S., the European Union and Japan) to stop subsidizing their agricultural products.

 Meanwhile, Venezuela and Cuba entered a series of accords on matters of health care, education and the economy, for the benefit of both countries. Operation Miracle restored the sight of thousands of Venezuelans afflicted with cataracts and other eye diseases. About 28,000 Cubans doctors and health technicians were in Venezuela, donating their services. At the same time, a literacy campaign using the Cuban system “Yes I Can” allowed more than one million Venezuelans to learn to read and write, and to go on to higher education.

 In exchange, Cuba received 98,000 barrels of crude oil per day, and protocols were signed to start up the refinery at Cienfuegos. Credit lines were opened so the island might acquire Venezuelan products, which led to growth in the small and medium-size industries in that country. Social, banking and commercial accounts of new types were established between two Third-World nations.

 In early 2006, after the inauguration of President Evo Morales, Bolivia also joined ALBA and welcomed Operation Miracle and the literacy campaign. Bolivia, one of the region’s poorest countries, could provide free medical coverage for the first time in its history. Hospitals donated by Cuba and Venezuela were built in strategic locations. At present, Operation Miracle has restored the sight of thousands of Bolivians, Panamanians, Peruvians, Nicaraguans and even a U.S. citizen.

 At the beginning of this year, the new governments in Ecuador and Nicaragua announced their intention to join ALBA, bringing the number of nations that participate in this new form of relationship between peoples to five. This, despite the fact that ALBA has faced and faces problems derived from the incomprehension of other governments. ALBA has even been looked upon with contempt by powerful economic sectors that refuse to accept the changes occurring in the region.

 What has been missing? Political will. The desire to pay off the old social debt that the Latin American oligarchies owe their people. However, other elements of change, such as the Southern Gas Pipeline, PetroCaribe, and the idea of a Bank of the South — all proposed by Chávez — have been welcomed because they suit the various governments’ economic interests and future ambitions, especially those with a nationalist vision. It is part of the game that necessarily has to be played to achieve integration in Latin America.

 But ALBA not only dreams. It advances. On Jan. 24, the governments of Venezuela and Cuba signed 16 accords of cooperation in areas such as steel manufacturing, telecommunications, agriculture and tourism, totaling about $1.854 billion. So far, both nations have entered into 12 joint ventures involving different sectors of the economy and services.

 The common element in all those instruments is the interrelation and complementation of the two economies. The Venezuelan economy boasts great economic riches, especially crude oil. The Cuban economy has a scientific-cultural base in many branches of human knowledge that permit it to deal with the execution of major economic plans for which it has no resources.

 One of the main accords is to promote the extraction and refining of Cuban ferronickel for the production of stainless steel in Venezuela. To that end, $600 million will be invested in the steel plants and about $521 million in the ferronickel plant in Cuba.

 One of the accords envisions the creation of a Multidisciplinary Group for the study and start-up of an international system of telecommunications between the two countries. An underwater fiberoptic cable will be laid between La Guaira, state of Vargas, in Venezuela and the city of Siboney, in the province of Santiago de Cuba. The cable will have two additional linkage points for any countries in the Caribbean and Central America that wish to share the connection.

 The tourism agreement envisions the development of recreational tourism through the construction of hotels and resorts in several keys (islets) in both countries. The agreement allows 100,000 low-income Venezuelans to spend their vacations in Cuba any time of the year. In addition, an accord provides that rice produced in Venezuela be exported to Cuba.

 In the important (and, for Cuba, fundamental) industry of oil prospecting, another accord authorizes Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) to take over the search for crude oil in four regions in Cuba’s territorial waters on the Gulf of Mexico. According to geological studies, major fields of crude and natural gas exist in those regions.

 In this manner, PDVSA joins six other transnational oil companies that carry out prospecting in Cuban waters. This accord is in addition to the pact signed in April 2006 between PDVSA and Cuba Petróleo (CUPET) for the refining of heavy hydrocarbons in the refinery of Cienfuegos and the exchange of technology.

 Venezuela thus becomes Cuba’s main trading partner. Last year, the volume of commercial transactions between the two countries rose to $2.64 billion. To some, it may seem a small amount, when compared with other countries or even some transnational corporations, but these are small economies — particularly Cuba’s — and this is only the beginning.

 The main beneficiary is, of course, the Cuban economy, which is still feeling the consequences of the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the rest of the socialist bloc, plus the increasingly harsh measures that are part of the blockade imposed by the United States more than 46 years ago. With the incorporation of Bolivia, Nicaragua and, later, Ecuador, ALBA is no longer just a dream of justice and cooperation among nations but a palpable reality, as demonstrated by the accords signed by Cuba and Venezuela.

 After closing the signing ceremony, President Chávez delivered a long speech, from which I have extracted two paragraphs that I consider fundamental: “…the ALBA continues to advance, the ALBA continues to concretize and deepen, while — as comrade Lula said recently in Rio de Janeiro — nobody talks about the FTAA anymore,” Chávez said. “About ALBA and the mechanisms and alternative processes of integration people talk and will talk in days to come with more profusion, more intensity. Not only that, but these mechanisms will concretize in a progressive manner, in a growing manner …”

Later, he said: “Here, we are truly willing to be free […] and to give an example to the other nations, to the other governments, a modest example of how, with political will, we can — and this is Fidel’s phrase — achieve miracles. With political will, near-miracles can be achieved, and that is crushing for the neoliberal theories, which would rather leave everything to the sacrosanct market.”

 It may be too soon to declare a definitive victory over the FTAA, which has been converted by the United States into free-trade agreements with various countries. The road before ALBA is plagued by powerful interests that oppose the well-being of the people, and reject economic development with justice and equity, which is the foundation of this plan. Those powerful interests mainly oppose the region’s independence and sovereignty.

How far will it be possible to go? It’s hard to tell. Perhaps until the total emancipation of Latin America, a condition that is closely linked to the economic and political integration of its states. But now ALBA advances and the union of various peoples and governments of Latin America is strengthened, joining other, no less promising phenomena that lead to integration. Let us hope that nothing and nobody can stop that process.

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