The grand pronouncements have been vintage Hugo Chavez. Venezuela's president has praised his "Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas" as a powerful counterweight to U.S. dominance in Latin America.

The fledgling organization, founded by Chavez and his closest ally, communist Cuba's Fidel Castro, has gotten a mixed reception among Chavez's Latin American neighbors, some of whom are cool to the group's stated goals of promoting "solidarity," "integration" and "social welfare" in the region.

Associated Press / 2000 photo (ENLARGE)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (right) talks with his close ally Cuban President Fidel Castro during a ceremony in 2000.

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Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua — all ruled by leftist leaders with close ties to Chavez — quickly joined "ALBA," the Spanish acronym for the group, which also translates as "the dawn."

In Peru, a firestorm of controversy followed the news that "Casas de ALBA" have opened in poor neighborhoods, homes serving as meeting places and organizational centers for social outreach programs and perhaps leftist political activism. Peru's Congress has launched an investigation, and Peruvian officials have told reporters they don't like the idea of Chavez spreading his socialist ideology in their country, a charge Venezuela denies.

Experts say ALBA's fortunes are clearly tied to Chavez, the group's driving force and main financial backer.

With Fidel Castro apparently off the world stage due to his lingering illness and retirement as Cuba's full-time leader, Chavez has made it clear that ALBA is a key part of his scheme to blunt U.S. influence in the region.

"Chavez's self-image in the past few years has been that Fidel is on the way out and he is getting the baton of radical leadership in the region," said Kurt Weyland, a Latin specialist at the University of Texas at Austin. "ALBA is fundamentally a Chavez vehicle, subject to his whims."

Dan Erikson, an analyst at Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank, said the group has yet to prove it has much clout. "The U.S. views it with some concern, but also recognizes that it doesn't offer that much, and the countries that have joined are smaller and poorer," Erikson said. "It's mainly symbolic."

With roots in an agreement signed by Cuba and Venezuela in 2004, ALBA was originally proposed as an alternative to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, an American-backed plan that has been stymied by rising opposition in the United States and parts of Latin America.

ALBA's name is taken from Simon Bolivar, Chavez's idol, a 19th century South American hero who led a large swath of territory stretching from Peru to Venezuela to independence from Spain, but whose dream of uniting the region into a single country failed. Although its original thrust seemed aimed at trade, ALBA in practice has been harder to pin down, something of a mish-mash of leftist ideology, charity work and trade deals that contain an element of barter, purposefully avoiding hard-nosed capitalist-style exchanges.

"It's not really a trade agreement and doesn't have trade in the name," said Jennifer McCoy, a Latin America specialist at Georgia State University. "It's also based on ideological affinities, with the countries trying to develop an alternative economic model."

The group began with a barterlike deal in which Venezuela provides discounted oil to Cuba, with Cuba in return sending doctors, social workers and sports trainers to work in poor Venezuelan neighborhoods.

As new members have joined, ALBA has expanded free medical care to poor residents of new member countries, again provided by Cuban doctors.

Some patients are flown to Cuba for treatment, but Cuba also has opened clinics in member countries, along with nonmember countries.

Chavez continues touting the organization as a viable player on the world stage, recently proposing that it add a military alliance and that member countries use a central ALBA bank to finance trade.

There are also proposals for regional education, literacy, health, communications and transportation programs.

Experts say the somewhat tepid response outside the countries with leftist leaders who have joined indicates Chavez's rhetoric extends far beyond ALBA's reach.

"I don't think it's a potent force in terms of being a threat to the U.S. or even for widespread change in Latin America," said Weyland, who pointed out that Latin America's most powerful economies — Brazil, Argentina and Chile — have kept ALBA and Chavez somewhat at arms' length.

"The U.S. worries a lot about Chavez and his influence, but the Brazilians have done well to moderate Chavez," he said. "It's not like the countries that have joined ALBA are that powerful and are going to roll up Latin America into their sphere."

Figures on exactly how much trade and aid ALBA accounts for are impossible to estimate, experts say, because the organization isn't forthcoming with figures and many of its deals are complex swaps instead of cash-based arrangements.

Clearly, the main funding comes from oil-producing Venezuela, where Chavez has taken advantage of the profits from high oil prices to shovel money into social welfare programs, both at home and abroad.