The Bolivarian alliance for the Americas as an alternative to neoliberalism: Then and now

This paper aims to analyze the history and the current situation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, one of the most controversial cooperation organizations in Latin America, pointing out the innovations that differ this innitiative from many others that came before such as the Mercosur and the Free Trade Area of the Americas. ALBA (or Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América, as it's known in Spanish) constitutes a representation of the uprising left in the continent, which fearlessly proposes alternatives to neoliberalism as the current model of consumption. With a detailed study of Chavez's Venezuela's foreign policy and the ideological proposals of the organization, this work shows the evolution of the project and also what kind of difficulties it has been facing, also offering an evaluation of what it has conquered throughout it's six years of existence.