Above: St Lucia

By the Caribbean Journal staff

St Lucia will be renaming the Grand Riviere Bridge after the Venezuela-led ALBA alliance, the government announced Friday.

The announcement was made at the sod-turning ceremony to begin construction work on the Grand Riviere bridge, which will become the “ALBA Bridge” upon completion.

“I want you to convey to the people of Venezuela and all the nations who form ALBA, the thanks of the Government and people of Saint Lucia, for the gift of this grant to finance the construction of these three bridges,” Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony said at the ceremony. “I want to emphasize that ALBA has made these funds available without any conditions. They have asked nothing of the Government of Saint Lucia. They did not even ask that the technicians, the steel and cement come from their countries. They came to our assistance without asking for anything in return.”

It’s the latest Venezuela-led regional infrastructure project to borrow its name from Venezuela. Last year, Haiti announced that it would be renaming its airport in Cap-Haitien after late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Venezuela is also funding two other bridge projects in St Lucia, the government said.

St Lucia officially joined ALBA, which stands for the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, at the ALBA Summit in Ecuador last year.

Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines are the region’s other members of ALBA.