Bank of the South: an alternative to the World Bank

[T&T Venezuela Bolivarian Solidarity]

The Bank of the South represents an alternative to the World Bank and the U.S. policies, the President of the Committee for the Abolition of the Third World Debt (CADTM Spanish acronym), Eric Toussaint said.

This statement was announced by Toussaint during the book baptism: World Bank. The Permanent Coup d’état. The hidden agenda of Washington’s Consensus, held in Miranda International National Center, in Caracas.

The Specialist in Political Sciences stated that the World Bank is an instrument for the foreign policy of the U.S. administration.

“When the U.S. wants to support the allied governments, it requests the granting of credits from the WB in order to finance projects. But, when they want to destabilize a government leading a progressing, nationalist or regional integration policy, they influence the WB in order to take away the financial support,” the researcher said.

The WB becomes rich by getting the countries which it grants credits into debts,” he added.

“This is the reason why it is important to create the Bank of the South as an alternative for South American countries in order to avoid demanding credits to the WB,” he said.

Mr. Toussaint said the Bank of the South would use the internal savings of Latin American countries to support social projects that generate employments, “without applying Washington’s policies.”

The WB intends to impose economic-opening policies which increase the dependence of the countries that request credits from industrialized nations.

He recalled that Venezuela proposed the idea of creating a bank in the south, followed by Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Guyana, Surinam and Paraguay, which are already part of the Bank of the South.”

In this regard, he mentioned that there are presidential, ministerial and technical meetings in order to consolidate the Bank of the South, which will use part of the reserves of the member countries.

The purpose is to grant credits for social priority projects aimed at improving education in the region as well as the production of low-priced medicines. These projects will also guarantee the Latin American integration and the improving of conditions of life of our peoples.

Mr. Toussaint highlights that one of the thesis of his aforementioned book is based on political criteria and not on the economic aspect.

He pointed out that the World Bank contributed to the International Monetary Found in order to destabilize Latin American progressive governments such as the Chilean with Salvador Allende.

“When those governments were overthrown by military dictatorships, the WB together with the IMF supported those dictatorships” he emphasized.

Erick Toussaint is PhD in Political Science of the University of Paris VIII; President of the Committee for the Abolition of the Third World Debt and member of the International Council of the World Social Forum (WSF).

He is also collaborator of Le Monde Diplomatique and author of the book: 50 Questions and 50 Answers about the Debt and The Stock or Life: The Finance Against the Peoples.