Bolivarian values continue to spread throughout South America. Venezuela's signature focus on education, health care, and regional economic cooperation-rather than a reliance on North American economies-has become a hallmark of other major powers on the continent, particularly in Brazil and Argentina. Now Uruguay is poised to vote for change as well.

Polls released this week suggest that Uruguay's Progressive Encounter Party will handily win the country's elections on October 31st, elevating former Montevideo Mayor Tabare Vazquez to the presidency. Vazquez has long been an advocate for regional self-sufficiency, advocating stronger regional trade alliances throughout the continent and rejecting the so-called Free-Trade Area of the Americas that would benefit North American interests at the expense of Latin American workers and the environment.

Despite opposition from North America, polls indicate that the Progressive Encounter Party enjoys more than 50% support from the electorate, while the ruling Conservative Party has less than 10% support.

ALBA: AN ALTERNATIVE ECONOMIC MODEL FOR THE REGION Venezuelan officials hope that closer cooperation between South American countries will result in increased economic inter-reliance and stronger regional development.

To this end, President Chavez introduced an economic plan to act as a counterweight to the FTAA last year. Known as the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America (or ALBA in its Spanish acronym), the plan establishes a trade area that prioritizes the elimination of poverty and the economic self-sufficiency of every member nation. ALBA would focus on growing the middle class first, rather than simply strengthening a wealthy elite.

Still in a developmental stage, ALBA is a powerful alternative to the North American neoliberal economic model. It promotes solidarity within the region by transferring resources to underdeveloped countries and strengthening economic infrastructure.

Unlike the FTAA, ALBA does not embrace privatization as a goal in itself, nor does it require industrial deregulation. It discourages the proliferation of poverty-creating industries like the notorious maquiladora sweatshops and eliminates roadblocks to distributing essential medicines.

According to Victor Alvarez, Venezuela's chief trade negotiator, ALBA is "based on solidarity between peoples, not on the cult of free trade and the invisible hand of the market. Its objective is the struggle against poverty and social exclusion to create a zone free of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, malnutrition."

With increasing alliances with Brazil, Argentina and, soon, Uruguay, Venezuelan officials believe that economic solidarity and interdependence are close to materializing.

For more on the FTAA and ALBA: www.veninfo.org/news/11-28-03CD.html

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