Economy
November 25

Chávez receives ALBA leaders and Ecuador president to discuss economic crisis
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is to welcome on Wednesday, November 26 the leaders of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) and his counterpart of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, to address the global financial crisis.

The meeting of the leaders of ALBA is salted to just a few hours, said on Tuesday, November 25 Hugo Chávez.

Chávez said that Bolivian president, Evo Morales; and his counterparts Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua); Manuel Zelaya (Honduras), and Rafael Correa (Ecuador), as well as authorities from Cuba and Dominica have confirmed their attendance. 

November 26

Chávez proposes new currency area to face financial crisis
In the context of the arrival of the presidents and guests to the summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez announced that he will submit the proposal of his Ecuadorian counterpart Rafael Correa to create a new currency area. Chávez said that it is useless to wait for others to solve the problems caused by the financial crisis in Latin America.

"We are going to create a monetary area in the ALBA. We are not going to wait, just sitting around, that the so-called International Monetary Fund and the World Bank come to solve our problems, especially the great threat to the world that has been unleashed, that is the great crisis of the century, the economic, financial and food crisis," said Chávez.

Chávez harshly criticizes the Inter-American Development Bank
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez accused the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) of using "political pressure" and being a "mechanism" of the United States and urged his Latin American counterparts to abandon the hemispheric facility. His remarks came during the opening session of the meeting of the heads of State of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), which was also attended by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa as a guest.

In reference to the United States, Chávez said that the IADB "has become also a mechanism of the empire," and regretted that it had been used as a "tool of political pressure to put conditions."

"Let us leave this bank and let us make a bank of our own, managed by ourselves, our peoples. Outrage is enough," said the president in the context of the ALBA Third Summit, an initiative of President Chávez.

Chávez wants respect for Latin American sovereignty
During his key speech at the opening session of the Third Extraordinary Summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez asked the global super powers to respect the sovereignty of Latin American nations.

"We make an appeal to respect our sovereignty; to be allowed to rebuild ourselves after the disaster left by centuries of colonialism," he said.

He lamented that the media of most countries accuse his government of meddling. "The biggest interventionist in the world is called the United States. I am accused of meddling when, for instance, everybody knows that the United States has been trying to destabilize the government of (Bolivian president) Evo Morales," said Chávez, as quoted by state-run news agency ABN.

Honduras president advises ALBA to create global monetary council
The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) needs to create a world monetary council in order to regulate the economic system of its member states, according to Honduras President Manuel Zelaya.

"We should seek an international economic order where a world monetary council could be created in order to really regulate a monetary system handled by the super power economies. A new monetary, financial and bank structure could exist in our region," he said on Wednesday.
 
During his speech at the ALBA Third Summit held in Caracas, Zelaya talked about the significance of proposing a global international order premised on the development of the ALBA member states, reported state-run news agency ABN.

Bolivia, Venezuela to audit also the foreign debt
Venezuela and Bolivia will review their foreign debts as Ecuador did under the administration of President Rafael Correa, said on Wednesday, November 26 Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
 
Ecuador plans to file at a court the case on the "spurious" debt by December 15th, as reported on Wednesday by Ricardo Patiño, the Ecuadorian Minister of Politics and chair of the commission that conducted the audit.

The senior official said in Caracas, in the context of the Third Summit of the Bolivarian Alternative of the Peoples of Our America (Alba), it is possible that Ecuador will not pay the next payable coupon and will not call investors for the purposes of renegotiation, Reuters reported.

For his part, Chávez has tried to bolster hemispheric funding facilities and usually blasts multilateral lending organizations. "Why should we be parties to the International Monetary Fund? We have money out there; by recovering it, we could reinforce our funds," he said.

November 27

ALBA supports Ecuador's decision to default on its debt
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa asked his allies of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), who attended an extraordinary summit in Caracas on Wednesday, to support his proposal of not paying Ecuador's foreign debt since it is "illegal" and "illegitimate."

"We call on the members of ALBA and all Latin American countries to support us. It is necessary to tell the truth now and tell our people what has been done. What has been done with Latin America's external debt is a crime. We are sure that similar or worst situations than the ones we have discovered in Ecuador have happened in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Venezuela, in all the countries of the region," said Correa, as reported by DPA.

Ecuador seeks legal mechanisms for not to repay external debt considered as illegal. This is the first time that Correa announces that he will resort to international tribunals to repudiate illegal debt.