ALBA, PETROCARIBE and CARICOM: Issues in a New Dynamic

• Author: Norman Girvan
• Pages: 218-231

ALBA, PETROCARIBE AND CARICOM:

ISSUES IN A NEW DYNAMIC

Norman Girvan

16

signif‌icant of the changes, as is the emergence

of other regional powers in the Global South

including South Africa, Brazil and Venezuela.

One notable consequence is the waning ability

of the United States to control the course of

events in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Hence, according to a recent report published

by the Washington-based Council on Foreign

Relations, ‘the era of US hegemony (in the

region) is over’.1

The signs of this shift are everywhere.

The FTAA process was aborted due to

Brazilian opposition to the terms on which

Washington had framed the negotiations;

governments opposed to the neo-liberal

‘Washington Consensus’ have come to power

in several countries; the Cuban Revolution

is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary in

spite of Washington’s obsession with regime

change in that countr y; the Bolivarian

Revolution in Venezuela continues apace

in spite of Washington’s antagonism; and

the traditional Washington-dominated

sources of development cooperation are

being overshadowed by Southern-controlled

institutions centred on Venezuela and Brazil.

Continentally, a South American Union

(UNASUR) is being constructed under

Brazilian leadership. These developments form

an important backdrop to a consideration

of the role and signif‌icance of ALBA and of

CARICOM’s relationship with the grouping.

In this paper, the nature of ALBA’s

mission and programme is examined, focusing

on the kind of cooperation arrangements

Introduction

The growth of relations between several

CARICOM states and the Venezuelan-

promoted the Bolivarian Alternative for the

Peoples of our America (ALBA) and PetroCaribe

initiatives is one of the most signif‌icant recent

developments in regional affairs. An immediate

issue that has arisen is whether membership

of ALBA might conf‌lict with the obligations

of membership of CARICOM itself. There

are also larger issues of a strategic nature for

CARICOM. They are related to the need for

diversif‌ication of economic relations in the

light of global economic restructuring; pursuit

of opportunities for new modalities of South-

South cooperation that are more advantageous

to the region than the standard features of

North-South arrangements; and the scope

for a coordinated external trade policy by the

Community. Indeed, although ideology and

hemispheric geopolitics do come into play with

ALBA and PetroCaribe; it seems important

for the issues to be framed within a regional

optic rather than within one determined by

Washington.

The argument presented here is that

ALBA, though having its own special

characteristics, should be seen as one

manifestation of a process of reconf‌iguration

in the world political economy; a process

marked by a relative decline in U.S. power

and the emergence of new geo-economic

poles of inf‌luence. The rise of Asia, and in

particular, China and India, is among the most