Seven countries, including two Caribbean islands, signed a document today paving the way for the establishment of a single currency among them, Cuban state media reported today.
The political leaders of Venezuela, Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Cuba and Dominica issued a final Declaration on Wednesday that gives a green light to the creation of a single currency, called the Sucre, that will initially circulate virtually, Granma said.
The final Declaration of the III Extraordinary Summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the People of Our America, better known by its Spanish acronym ALBA, that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez pioneered to replace the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was approved today in Caracas. The Declaration approves the creation of a single monetary zone and "a chamber of compensation payments."
The creation of the monetary bloc would be accompanied by a Reserve Fund financed by contributions from member countries "to sustain investment policies for development," according to the document read by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
The text received the support of the leaders of Bolivia, Evo Morales; Ecuador, Rafael Correa; Honduras, Manuel Zelaya; and Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega; Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit and the representative of the Government of Cuba, Ricardo Cabrisas. ALBA agreed to meet again in December 2008.
The date for the next meeting according to Cuban state media is December 14, 2008 and the location, Caracas, where attendees will work to approve the technical details of the initiative, allso being called SUCRE (Sistema Único de Compensación Regional).
ALBA together with Ecuador, the Venezuelan President said, will create a single monetary zone.
The Summit participants were convened urgently by Chávez to evaluate "capitalism's financial crisis." The men expressed concern over the absence of "real proposals" to solve the crisis that threatens the people of the Americas.
The Declaration also expresses the desire on the part of ALBA members and Ecuador to get out of "the monopoly of the [US] dollar" as the currency for international trade.
The leaders committed themselves to putting forward regional proposals to make international financial bodies independent, and to activate structures within the United Nations to respond to the challenges of the world.
Venezulen President Hugo Chávez Frías who is also welcoming Russian President Dmitri Medvedev tonight, also called on countries of the region to drop out of the Inter-American Development Bank, commonly known as the IDB, and the Andean Development Corporation, better known as CAF.
During today's ALBA Summit, President Chávez accused the IDB of succumbing to "political pressure" and of being a "tool" of the United States, and called on his colleagues to drop out of the Bank.
Chavez said the IDB had become "another tool of the empire" which is what he and many Cubans call the United States of America. He said the US uses the IDB as "an instrument of political pressure to impose conditions."
"Let us get out of that bank and form our own bank... that we manage ourselves, our people. We have been walked over enough," he said during today's ALBA Summit.
Chávez was responding to complaints about the IDB from Honduran President Selaya, and Ecuador's Rafael Correa. The President of Ecuador is participating in the Summit as a guest as it is not a member of ALBA.
The IDB is a multilateral organization made up of 47 members which include Argentina, the Bahamas, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, México, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela as borrowing shareholders and the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Israel, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland as non-borrowing.
Chavez also threatened to take away the CAF building in Caracas. CAF is a similar arrangement to the IDB in that through it rich countries and banks get to finance development projects in the region. CAF's supporters include some of Venezuela's favorite countries such as Spain, Colombia and the United States. Trinidad and Tobago is also a member of CAF along with Jamaica.
Chavez told the Summit that the region should not wait for the "silly IMF and World Bank to come to solve our problems."
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