Comparison with another region: the ALBA

Nowadays, Mercosur is not the only trade organization in South America. We can also find others like the Andean Community, the CARICOM (Caribbean Community) or the ALBA-TCP (Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty). In this section, some main differences and similarities between Mercosur and the ALBA-TCP will be explained.

*Suspended country
** Country in process of integration
Source: Mercosur.int

Source: Alterinfo.net

Countries and languages

The ALBA is constituted by Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Venezuela (Ecuador made part of it in the past), as we can see in the second picture.

Mercosur, as it has already been explained and as we can see in the first picture, is constituted by Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay (Venezuela is currently suspended from its membership and Bolivia is in the process of integration, so it will be part of it in a near future). 

Therefore, the languages spoken in the ALBA region are Spanish, English, Quechua (in the Andes zone of Bolivia) and Aymara (also in Bolivia). Meanwhile, the official languages of Mercosur are Spanish, Portuguese and Guarani (spoken in Paraguay).

Population, land and economy

Despite the amount of countries (it has more members than Mercosur) ALBA represents a small portion of South America’s land and population, compared to Mercosur:

ALBA members represent an area of 2.537.004 squared kilometres and they have 68.768.907 inhabitants, while Mercosur occupies a total area of 13.771.194 squared kilometres and has a total of 264.347.840 inhabitants.

Not to mention their economic relevance; measured in the percentage of the world’s GDP its 10 members hold a 0,45% of it. Meanwhile, the 4 Mercosur countries (without taking Venezuela into account) account for 3,44% of the world’s GDP.

Political ideology

ALBA was created in 2004 in Cuba, with an agreement made by former Venezuela and Cuba presidents Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro. Hugo Chávez expressed in a speech his goal of achieving a political integration of the states and republics in South America. The idea of this formation is inspired by one the leaders’ of some Latin American countries independence from the Spanish Empire, Simon Bolívar. This military leader envisioned the creation of a Latin American nation which rivalled and opposed to the United States’ imperialism and liberalism.

Therefore, one major difference between the two organizations (if not the greatest) is their economic approach.

ALBA’s ideologic characteristic is socialism (economical regulation made by the State) as a complete opposition to the Mercosur’s liberalism (characterized economically by free trade).

With reference to these two different approaches, ALBA’s main economic objective is the fight against poverty, with leftist doctrines (promote the protection of domestic agriculture and industry, for instance); while Mercosur’s goal has been from the beginning the free circulation of goods by means of the elimination of tax restrictions (open markets).

To conclude, some political contrapositions can be found as well between the two organizations. As it is mentioned in another section, one of Mercosur’s essential conditions for being part of the organization is having fully valid democratic institutions (Protocol of Ushuaia and reason for which Venezuela is suspended). On the contrary, ALBA’s political model eventually involves the elimination of representative democracy in favour of a greater popular participation (in committees or communes) linked to a strong executive leader who concentrates all the State’s powers.