Bolivia joining Cuba, Venezuela in anti-U.S. trade pact

HAVANA
Bolivian President Evo Morales was joining fellow leftist leaders from Cuba and Venezuela on Friday to endorse their concept for shared regional commerce that follows socialist principles and rejects U.S. control.

Morales has said on Saturday he will officially include his Andean country in the "alternative" trade pact presidents Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela devised a year ago.

So far, only Venezuela and Cuba are signatories to the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, which aims to offer shared trade and co-operation agreements among Latin American countries in lieu of Washington-led pacts based on capitalism.

The ceremony will mark a deepening political and economic alliance among communist Cuba and leftist Venezuela and Bolivia as the three countries work toward their own idea for regional integration without U.S. influence.

Castro greeted Morales at Havana airport when he arrived Friday afternoon, Cuba's Prensa Latina news service said. Chavez was expected later Friday. Cuban authorities released no details about Saturday's signing ceremony, including when and where it would be held.

The trade pact is named for the 19th-century South American revolutionary Simon Bolivar, who led independence wars in Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.

The agreement will allow Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela to trade some products with zero tariffs and strengthen already close ties among the three countries, whose leaders are known for their strong opposition to U.S. policy.

"We don't want to be rich but we do want to live well, with dignity, as brothers, so there is no misery, so there is no poverty, so people are not excluded - that is among our fundamental objectives," Chavez said of the trade pact in Caracas on Friday, before leaving for Havana.

Chavez and Morales have warned in recent days their countries could withdraw from the Andean Community if fellow trade-bloc members Colombia, Peru and Ecuador go through with free-trade pacts with the United States.

Chavez said in his Caracas speech Friday said Venezuela and Cuba would happily buy all the soybeans Bolivia produces. Colombia - previously a key soybean market for Bolivia - recently signed a free-trade pact with the United States and can now buy soybeans at much lower prices, the Venezuelan president said.

Since a U.S.-backed hemispheric trade pact fell apart last year, Washington has signed nine free trade agreements with Latin American countries. Ecuador is currently in negotiations.

"Listen, as long as the free trade pact (with the United States) threatens the small and medium-sized soy producers in Bolivia, ALBA will save them," Chavez said, using the Spanish acronym for the alternative trade grouping.

"We'll take them by the hand and say: 'Come we us, we'll buy your soybeans, look at the difference.' "

In La Paz, Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said his government hopes new commerce with Cuba and Venezuela will make up for any lost trade with the United States and the Andean Community.

But the Bolivarian Alternative isn't just about trade.

Heavily political in nature, it also calls for co-operation programs among countries, such as the Operation Miracle program Cuba and Venezuela devised to offer free eye surgery to needy people from other Latin American countries.