The Alliance was created to foster a union among the peoples, Arreaza recalled.

On Monday, Jorge Arreaza, the secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), reflected on the 20 years of this regional integration mechanism, highlighting its main characteristics and achievements.

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“ALBA-TCP was created to foster a union not among the dominant political and economic elites, but a union among the peoples. Unlike any other international institution in our history, ALBA-TCP has contributed to rescuing this union project through very concrete actions,” he pointed out.

“None of the countries, no matter how large, such as Mexico, Brazil, or Argentina, will truly be independent and prosperous if they do not understand that we must unite. This is a necessity for a multipolar world where Latin America and the Caribbean constitute one of the most powerful poles,” Arreaza added.

ALBA-TCP was founded on December 14, 2004, in Havana, Cuba, through the signing of a Joint Declaration and the Agreement for the Implementation of ALBA by Hugo Chávez, then-President of Venezuela, and Fidel Castro, then-President of the Council of State of Cuba.

During a special television program marking the 20th anniversary of ALBA-TCP, Arreaza emphasized that this institution paves the way for the peoples to consolidate a multipolar world.

“ALBA-TCP is not only alive but fervent in its conviction that humanity can choose better paths and that a multipolar world is the destiny of our peoples. We can generate the political and economic power necessary to achieve the happiness of the people,” he stated.

In terms of geopolitics, Arreaza highlighted that ALBA-TCP is the only international institution that promptly and decisively condemned the genocide in Gaza and Israeli aggression in Lebanon.

“The governments that are part of this alliance reject Israel’s genocide and demand an immediate ceasefire. We call for the restructuring of the Palestinian nation with its pre-1967 borders. We declare Palestine a brother nation of ALBA-TCP,” he said, emphasizing that “the Palestinian cause is the cause of humanity.”

Arreaza also noted that ALBA-TCP has solidified itself as a markedly different and progressive integration project. “The Alliance is designed by and for the people. Its essence is popular. Its core is the human being and the peoples. There is no other alliance like this in the world,” he said, recalling that Chávez conceived ALBA-TCP as an alternative proposal to capitalism and neoliberalism.

teleSUR/ JF Sources: VTV – El Universal

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