LATIN AMERICA : Bolivia joins Cuba, Venezuela in rejecting U.S.-backed trade

Posted on Sun, Apr. 30, 2006

Bolivia joins Cuba, Venezuela in rejecting U.S.-backed trade

By Anita Snow
Associated Press

HAVANA - Bolivia’s new left-leaning president signed a pact with Cuba and Venezuela on Saturday rejecting U.S.-backed free trade and promising a socialist version of regional cooperation.

Cuban authorities did not release copies of the so-called Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas signed by Bolivia’s Evo Morales, so its contents were unclear.

Local media reported that it was similar to the declaration signed last year by Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, which contained much leftist rhetoric and few specifics, but was followed by closer economic ties between the two vehemently anti-U.S. leaders.

The agreement was a mixture of politics and economics, weighted toward the politics,'' said Gary Hufbauer, an economist at the Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank. Venezuela-Cuba trade is expected to reach more than $3.5 billion this year -- about 40 percent higher than in 2005. Among other measures, the deal signed between Chávez and Castro has Venezuela -- the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and a major supplier to the United States -- selling 90,000 barrels a day of crude to the communist-run island at international market prices, but in exchange for services and agricultural products instead of cash. Later Saturday, the three presidents signed a second document with more concrete proposals. Cuba promised to send doctors and teachers to Bolivia. Venezuela will send gasoline to the Andean nation and set up a $100 million fund for development programs and a $30 million fund for other social projects. Cuba and Venezuela also agreed to buy all of Bolivia's soybeans, recently left without a market after Colombia signed a free-trade pact with the United States. Morales, a Bolivian coca farmer who was swept to power on a leftist platform and has long railed against American economic and drug policies, claimed during his campaign to bethe nightmare of the U.S. government.’’ He, like Chávez, has tried to maintain a vibrant private sector while claiming an ever-larger role in managing the economy, and has toned down his rhetoric.

The U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas hemispheric trade pact stalled last year, but Washington since has signed nine free-trade agreements with Latin American countries.

The Cuban, Venezuelan and Bolivian presidents called the FTAA a U.S. effort to ``annex’’ Latin America.

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