(The following article is from the May 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

ACN - The 5th Summit of the Americas concluded April 19 in Trinidad-Tobago, with a controversial final declaration rejected by several nations as insufficient and unacceptable.

     The document was considered as approved although it lacked the support of several countries, including those that make up the Bolivarian Alternative for Our Americas (ALBA).

     During the closing ceremony, Trinidad-Tobago's Prime Minister Patrick Manning said that the declaration has gaps due to the fact that the document had been submitted to negotiations by technocrats for some two years. By that time the world situation was different from today's, said Manning, who explained that the document does not reflect the current hemispheric scenario.

     The final declaration, to which will be added some points, favours promoting the development of the private sector. The document turns to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Inter-American Development Bank and other regional credit institutions to step up efforts aimed at expanding and developing the private business sector. The objective stated by the declaration is that by 2012, credit lines destined to the micro, small and medium enterprises will double and the number of companies with access to credit triple.

     The document also calls for the production and exploitation of current biological fuels and those of the next generation, including sugar derivatives. The declaration promotes the production of more advanced second generation bio‑fuels, which do not pose any direct competition for land, water or fertilizers to other agricultural products.

     Despite its gaps, the declaration admits the prevalence of deep and persistent inequalities, particularly in the fields of education, income levels, health care, nutrition, violence and crime and access to basic services. It also admits the prevalence of exclusion against the most vulnerable sectors of society, including women, children, indigenous people and the poor.

     Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said that the draft declaration "does not reflect the economic crisis we are experiencing, which is not a temporary crisis but a crisis of the capitalist system, and that the document suggests solutions by legitimizing those responsible for the crisis, for instance, the International Monetary Fund."

     For Correa, the alternatives are going to the hands of the gravediggers instead of the hands of those who want to revive the world, and he labelled the document as "light."

     "We share a firm position and I do not think we have time now to change the content of the document, and since we do not have time for that we will not sign it, I can speak for myself and for the ALBA countries," said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

     The Bolivarian Alternative for Our Americas regional integration initiative, known by its Spanish acronym ALBA, is made up of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Honduras, Cuba, Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

     The ALBA countries argue that the declaration does not respond to the world economic crisis, the major challenge that has faced humanity in decades and the most serious threat of our times. They also say that the declaration excludes Cuba without saying a word about the general consensus prevailing in the region against the US economic blockade of the Caribbean nation and the US attempts to isolate Cuba.