Chavez Shuns Neighbors for Dealing With US

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he is withdrawing from a regional bloc, the five-member Andean Community of Nations, because fellow members Colombia and Peru have signed free trade agreements with the United States. Doing so "fatally wounded" hopes of an independent regional trade alliance, he said. Chavez already has announced plans to set up what he says will be a strategic political and economic alliance of South American countries, independent of U.S. pressure. The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), to be financed largely with Venezuela's oil riches, aims to export Chavez's socialist "Bolivarian Revolution." Full Story