Representatives of the members countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) will meet on Saturday in Venezuela to celebrate the eight anniversary of this integration mechanism, based on the principles of solidarity.

According to the announcement, made on Friday by Venezuelan Executive Vice President Nicolás Maduro, the event will be held in Bolivar square, in this capital, with the presence of Bolivian President Evo Morales.

Other participants include the prime ministers of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, and the Domincan Republic, the ousted president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, ministers from Ecuador and Nicaragua, and a special delegate from Cuba.

The ALBA, founded on December 14, 2004, in Havana, by Cuba and Venezuela, was a respond to the Free Trade Area for the Americas. Such a project, promoted by Washington, was considered by President Hugo Chavez and Cuban Revolution Leader Fidel Castro as "the most finished expression of the appetite for domination (of the United States) over the region".

Currently, the ALBA members are Bolivia, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ecuador and Antigua and Barbuda.

The ALBA has the Sucre (Unitarian System of Regional Compensation), which was adopted in 2010 to make financial transactions independent from the U.S. dollar and facilitate trade between the member countries.

During its eight years of existence, the mechanism supported causes considered essential for progressive people and governments in the region, including Argentina's claim for sovereignty over the Falklands (Malvinas) Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich.