Maduro promises to improve ALBA

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http://www.nicaraguadispatch.com/news/2013/06/maduro-promises-to-improve-alba/7753


By Tim Rogers / Nicaragua Dispatch
June 3, 2013
In a possible attempt to quell rumors that Venezuela is concerned about the Sandinistas’ management of aid money, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro traveled to Nicaragua this weekend to promise a strengthening of bilateral relations under the ideological banner of the Bolivarian Alliance for our Americas (ALBA).


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The inquiry from the normally uninquisitive Comptroller General’s Office has revived old rumors that Venezuela is concerned about Nicaragua’s handling of its oil money, and perhaps requested the audit of ALBANISA itself. Maduro’s visit this weekend played to media suspicions that Venezuela is not pleased with the slow rate of progress on its emblematic megaproject, the Supreme Dream of Bolivar Oil Refinery, which has not advanced much beyond the “supreme dream” phase nearly six years after the cornerstone was laid.


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Also similar to his deceased political mentor, Maduro made grand new promises about how ALBA will continue to develop new projects and change Latin American history. Like Chávez before him, Maduro also failed to mention all the other previous promises that ALBA has not delivered on.

When Chávez did his lakeside tour in 2010, the former strongman ended the day by promising Nicaragua a regasification plant and fertilizer plant—two projects that were never mentioned again. Also on the list of forgotten ALBA promises are two factories to produce aluminum, a factory to produce industrial bags, construction of 200,000 new homes by 2012, the construction of two engineering universities, an airline and a baseball league.