Speaking at Havana’s Convention Center during the main ceremony to mark the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Cuba-Venezuela Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement, Chavez added that it is necessary to defeat imperialism, but not only with words and in the moral battlefield but also in the political and the economic fields.

Chavez, who presided over the ceremony along with Cuban President Raul Castro, noted that Venezuela and Cuba are determined to fight imperialism.

“The Empire has forced us to consolidate our unity and to continue ahead. The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of the Americas (ALBA) is the best expression of the full and perfect integration among our peoples,” he pointed out.

In this regard, he said that the idea to create ALBA was born during a meeting with Fidel Castro in the Venezuelan island of Margarita in 2001.

Chavez added that building socialism is a titanic task and noted that Cuba is well ahead of Venezuela, which continues to advance.

He praised the current process of transformations in the economic area being implemented by the Cuban people led by Raul Castro. In this regard he noted that Raul, as Ernesto Guevara did, know that a Revolution has to go hand in hand with efficiency.