by the El Reportero’s news services
Evo Morales
Leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean have agreed during a summit in Bolivia on creation of a regional currency aimed at reducing the use of the US dollar.
The decision came shortly after members of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (Alba) gathered in the central city of Cochabamba for the start of the two-day summit, the AFP news agency reported.
Top on the agenda for the left-leaning regional trade group, which includes Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua, were talks to implement the new currency, known as the sucre, for use among Alba nations.
“The document is approved,” Evo Morales, Bolivia’s president and summit host, said on Friday.
Earlier, Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, described the new currency as a “revolution of paradigms”.
“The sucre is born in the Alba,” Chavez said ahead of the meeting.
“The sucre – an autonomous and sovereign monetary system that will be agreed upon today so that it can be implemented in 2010.”
Colombia and Ecuador move swiftly towards restoring diplomatic ties
Colombia and Ecuador aim to re-establish diplomatic relations at the level of chargés d’affaires by the end of October. This was one key advance made by Colombia’s foreign minister, Jaime Bermúdez, and his Ecuadorean peer Fander Falconí in the Colombian border town of Ipiales on Oct. 9.
The Colombian government will also provide Quito with information on two camps of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) in Ecuador at another meeting, scheduled for Oct. 16 in the Ecuadorean border city of Ibarra, when both countries plan to reactivate the binational border commission (Combifron). Tension over two judicial processes in Ecuador affecting Colombia, however, could jeopardise progress.
Leftist Latin American bloc rejects Honduras election
OCHABAMBA (Bolivia): Leaders of a bloc of leftist Latin American governments urged the international community on Saturday to reject the presidential election planned by Honduras’ interim government next month.
The leaders of the Boliviarian Alternative group also denounced Colombia’s plan to give the US military expanded use of bases in that South American nation, calling it a threat to the region’s security.
In a joint statement issued at the end of the two-day ALBA meeting, the leaders criticized the coup-installed government in Honduras and urged the world’s nations to continue pressing for the reinstate- ment of ousted President Manuel Zelaya HYPERLINK “http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/Leftist-LatinAmerican-bloc-rejects-Honduras-election/articleshow/5135566.cms” .
“No electoral process held under the coup-installed government, or the authorities that emerge from it, can be recognized by the international community,’’ the statement said. It added that “it is fundamental to drive a diplomatic offensive and to promote forceful actions for the total re-establishment of the constitutional’’ order in Honduras.
On Friday, the nine-nation ALBA bloc — formed by socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — approved more economic sanctions against Honduras to punish the interim government led by RobertoMicheletti HYPERLINK “http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/Leftist-Latin-American-bloc-rejects-Honduras-election/articleshow/5135566.cms” .
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said the bloc urged Zelaya’s supporters to peacefully resist the coup-installed government. But Chavez several times argued that people have a right to rebel.
The ALBA leaders also said they rejected the “installation of military bases of the United States in Latin America and the Caribbean,’’ saying they “endanger the peace, threaten democracy and facilitate the hegemonic interference’’ of the US in the region’s affairs.
“The government of Colombia must reconsider the installation of these military bases,’’ the statement said.
Chavez called the bases a “threat to all of us.’’ The ALBA leaders also called for an “International Tribunal of Climate Justice’’ that would presumably seek to oblige rich countries to pay “damages’’ for their disproportionate consumption of fossil fuels.
