The growth of relations between several Caricom states and the Venezuelan-promoted ALBA and Petrocaribe initiatives is one of the most significant recent developments in regional affairs. An immediate issue that has arisen is whether membership of ALBA might conflict with the obligations of membership of Caricom itself. There are also larger issues of a strategic nature for Caricom. They are related to the need for diversification of economic relations in the light of global economic restructuring; pursuit of opportunities for new modalities of South-South cooperation that are more advantageous to the region that the standard features of North-South arrangements; and the scope for a coordinated external trade policy by the Community. Indeed although ideology and hemispheric geopolitics do come into play with ALBA and Petrocaribe; it seems important for the issues to be framed within a regional optic rather than within one determined by Washington.

We argue here that ALBA, though having its own special characteristics; should be seen as one manifestation of a process of reconfiguration in the world political economy; a process marked by a relative decline in U.S. power and the emergence of new eoeconomic poles of influence. The rise of Asia, and in particular China and India, is among the most significant of the changes; as is the emergence of other regional powers in the Global South including South Africa, Brazil and Venezuela. One notable consequence is the waning ability of the United States to control the course of events in Latin America and the Caribbean. Hence, according to a recent report published by the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations, ‘the era of US hegemony (in the region) is over’.

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