The Castro-Chávez Alliance

Abstract

Socialist Cuba and Bolivarian Venezuela have embarked jointly on a historic journey of hemispheric dimensions. Under the collaborative and solidarity alliance between Havana and Caracas a complex web of bilateral trade and services has been developed, including Venezuelan oil and Cuban medical expertise. The mutually beneficial exchanges have served as a blueprint for the continentwide exchanges promoted by the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, which was conceived by Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez in opposition to the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the Washington Consensus, and neoliberalism. Venezuela's alliance with Cuba is more than political calculation or commercial exchanges. Its reasons and foundation run deeper. The revolutionary solidarity between Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez, the bedrock of the alliance, is based on the vision of a united Latin America free of Washington's control, turning Simón Bolívar's legacy into a new reality.