Andean Group - December 2009 (ISSN 1741-4466)

Over the weekend of 12-13 December, the 8th summit of the Venezuela-led Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América (Alba) took place in Havana, Cuba. Aside from their usual vitriolic US-bashing, the summiteers (from Antigua & Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, St Vincent & The Grenadines, and Venezuela) agreed on a series of practical measures to strengthen the organisation. These include the creation of a permanent rotating Alba presidency and a proposed new Alba defence council to discuss and coordinate member state defence policies, as well as measures to deepen commercial and economic ties between the nine member states.

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