ALBA is an international cooperation organization based on the idea of social, political and economic integration among Latin American and Caribbean countries. ALBA aims to integrate the region through a vision of walfare, bartering, mutual economic aid and people’s progress.

In Spanish ALBA stands for Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra America).

The member nations of ALBA are Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Venezuela.

ALBA nations are in the process of introuducing a new regional currency, the SUCRE. In July of 2010, Venezuela and Ecuador conducted the first bilateral tade deal between two ALBA countries using this new trading currency, instead of the US dollar.