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ALBA: Trade, doctors, literacy brigades … and a military force? |
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Well, maybe. During an ALBA summit meeting today in Caracas, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez suggested that member countries create a joint military force to fend off possible future U.S. aggression.
The threat, Chávez has said, comes from his neighbor country of Colombia  where for nearly a decade the U.S. has poured billions of dollars in military aid into the controversial Plan Colombia program to eradicate coca production and drug smuggling.
After the recent release of Colombian FARC hostages, the relationship between Colombian President ÃÂlvaro Uribe and Chávez got pretty bad. Chávez routinely calls Uribe a tool for U.S. imperialism. And recently in Managua, Chávez talked about how U.S. and Colombian officials secretly plot to assassinate him and provoke an armed conflict between the two South American countries.
The suggestion to create an ALBA military force comes as concerns here in the U.S. rise about Venezuela’s weapon buildup.
For the record, until now the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas has been planted as a social/economic justice-minded alternative to neoliberal trade agreements.
Melissa Sanchez is a U.S. journalist working out of Managua, Nicaragua. She is interested Latin American media and politics, music and running.
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