Venezuelan president visits Cuba to celebrate 12th anniversary of ALBA bloc

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro began his visit to Cuba early on Wednesday to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) with his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro.

Maduro was received by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez at Havana's airport where he also tweeted about his visit to the island.

"Touching down in Cuba, 22 years after the first meeting between Fidel and Chavez. We come to celebrate 12 years of ALBA and ratify the path of union and liberation," posted Maduro in his Twitter account.

Maduro's visit also coincided with the first ever meeting in 1994 between former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

A political event is scheduled for later in the day to commemorate the foundation of the bloc which groups Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Dominica, Ecuador, Grenada, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Venezuela and Cuba.

The commemoration came just a few days after ALBA founder and former Cuban President Fidel Castro died in Havana at the age of 90 on Nov. 25.

Founded initially by Cuba and Venezuela in 2004, ALBA, a leftist integration bloc in the region, is associated with socialist and social democratic governments wishing to consolidate regional economic integration based on a vision of social welfare, exchanging goods and mutual economic aid.

Launched in 2004, ALBA initially had only two member states, Venezuela and Cuba. Later, a number of other Latin American and Caribbean nations reached the "Peoples' Trade Agreement" which aims to implement the principles of ALBA.

Bolivia under Evo Morales joined in 2006, Nicaragua under Daniel Ortega in 2007, and Ecuador led by Rafael Correa in 2009. Honduras, under Manuel Zelaya, joined in 2008 but withdrew a year later after a coup took place in the Central American nation.

In the following years, the regional group continued to be joined by Caribbean nations -- Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Lucia. Endi