Leaders Converge for ALBA Summit

The presidents of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega; Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel; and Bolivia, Luis Arce, arrived in Venezuela to participate in the The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) bloc summit.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil received Ortega at the Simón Bolívar airport, which serves Caracas. "The commander will be participating in the ALBA-TCP Summit along with other regional leaders, with the aim of increasing cooperation and solidarity, and strengthening this bloc," he said.

Gil also welcomed Díaz-Canel, calling him a "friend of the Bolivarian cause," and Arce.

The prime ministers of Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Gaston Browne and Ralph Gonsalves respectively, were among the first to arrive in the Venezuelan capital.

The agenda of the meeting has not yet been disclosed.

"Today more than ever the union of our people is essential. Imperialism declines and becomes even more dangerous," wrote former vice president Jorge Arreaza, now secretary general of the bloc of 10 countries.

"In the face of diversity, we must continue to advance towards the integration of our America and the development of the people," said the host ruler, Nicolás Maduro.

"Secondly, to study and approve the plan that has been prepared for the re-launching of Petrocaribe in the new stage. After the missile bombardment of sanctions from the United States that tried to destroy Petrocaribe, it stopped it, but did not destroy it," he added.

The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America was born in 2004 by the now deceased presidents Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro, in response to Washington's failed project to create the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

It is currently made up of Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Grenada and Cuba.

The last ALBA summit was held in December 2022 in Havana.