ADITAL | 19 April 2010

The Caracas Manifesto reaffirms the agreement to strengthen the sovereignty of the people

By Karol Assunçăo*

Freely translated by Anoosha Boralessa in March 2015. Neither www.bilaterals.org nor any other organization or person has reviewed or revised this translation.

Adital: Yesterday (19 April) during the celebrations of two hundred years from the beginning of the struggle for Venezuela’s independence, the Presidents and the Heads of State of the member states of the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America – The People’s Trade Treaty (Alba-TCP) signed the “Bicentennial Manifesto of Caracas”. This document confirmed the agreement between the ALBA nations to strengthen the union and political sovereignty of the people.

The Manifesto proposes that from its very inception, Alba shall be an “area that will respond to and effectively guard against energy, financial, food and social crises, triggered by global capitalism that today threatens the existence of Mother Earth and humanity’s survival”. Thus it seeks to strengthen the independence and the sovereignty of the people that constitute it.

For this reason it is not surprising that one of the points agreed between the Alba countries in the Manifesto was to strengthen the Union and Political Sovereignty. According to the document, the Alliance “must be dynamic and fundamental, pushing forward the struggle to achieve equilibrium in the universe”

For this reason, it is necessary to fight against interventionism – chiefly military interventionism and war - and seek to preserve and reestablish peace. It was argued:

“accordingly, the Alba countries will preserve and will help to preserve peace by forming alliances that will strengthen their capacity to safeguard the national sovereignty of the people against foreign intervention.”

Another point emphasized by the countries that signed this document is to try to build an independent, developed and socialist economic base. They indicated:

“We have agreed in this Summit that the new Independence of our countries may only be firmly established if we construct a new economic expression, the core function of which is satisfying the needs of our people.”

The document indicates Alba states have already begun to outline alternative experiences to the economic model currently in force. And now they claim to transform their drafts into viable options to improve their economic independence. They stressed:

“for this reason we think that the time has come for us to take on an Economic Plan that places greater emphasis on projects and transnational companies, the People’s Trade Treaty, the sucre and the Bank of Alba as the foundational pillars for a common economic area."

Those parts of the constitution of the nations that form part of Alba in areas of equality, social wellbeing and the abolition of poverty were also addressed in the Manifesto. It is claimed that to achieve this, greater coherence and cover is needed for Alba Social Missions.

In addition to Venezuela, the following countries signed the Manifesto: Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and San Vincent & the Grenadines.

*Adital Journalist