Chávez confirms ALBA extraordinary summit

“The ALBA extraordinary summit is few days away, next June 24th, at the Carabobo Battlefield, with the superb, encouraging, strengthening incorporation” of Ecuador, and his president, “the decent, brave brother” Rafael Correa, said the Venezuelan ruler

Economy
Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez confirmed on Thursday an extraordinary summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of our America (ALBA) next June 24th at the Carabobo Battlefield in order to make official Ecuador's membership.

Chávez noted the significance of Ecuador's inclusion in the regional organization during a sworn-in ceremony of the new Venezuelan ambassadors to Spain, Cuba, Qatar, Syria and Italy.

"The ALBA extraordinary summit is few days away, next June 24th, at the Carabobo Battlefield, with the superb, encouraging, strengthening incorporation" of Ecuador, and his president, "the decent, brave brother" Rafael Correa, said the Venezuelan president, Efe quoted.

Chávez said last June 3rd that he had proposed June 24th as the date to hold a special meeting to welcome Ecuador, but he had been waiting for the confirmation of the other member states.

The ALBA was created upon the initiative of President Chávez, as an alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). It comprises Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Honduras and Dominica.

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IISS: The FARC financed Chávez before 1999

10:07 AM. DIPLOMACY. Admired by the Colombian guerrilla after his coup attempt in 1992, the then lieutenant colonel Hugo Chávez Frías received financial support by the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) for his projects after his capture that year. This mostly explains the relationship and "debt" between the parties, as revealed by a paper of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) of the United Kingdom.