(Prensa Latina) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez highlighted the humanism of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) against the Free Trade Agreement fostered by Washington.

Answering a question posed by Prensa Latina on the incorporation of Nicaragua to ALBA and the 16 agreements recently signed between Venezuela and Cuba, he said the project is expanding in the region.

He said that Nicaragua has a Free Trade Agreement with US since May 2004, and should not take ALBA as something unimportant, and the two mechanisms might coexist for a while, but FTA in different countries will finally go down one by one.

Chávez said ALBA, with Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua as members, is a mechanism based on cooperation, complement and solidarity.

He highlighted the importance of the recent agreements signed with Cuba , after the visit of Cuban Vicepresident Carlos Lage at the head of a wide governmental and enterprise delegation.

Both countries signed 16 agreements on transport, finances, agriculture, mining, industry, energy and tourism.

Chávez stressed the strategic importance of cooperation with Cuba, since the new agreements promote creation of 12 joint ventures which will join another nine, already working."