LATIN AMERICAN and Caribbean leaders warned of a “new imperialist onslaught” on Sunday during a summit in Venezuela.

Presidents and prime ministers from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (Alba) bloc met in the capital Caracas on the fourth anniversary of the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez’s death — and four months since the demise of Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

The bloc, which comprises Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and six small Caribbean states including Grenada, said the region was passing through a “crucial stage in its history.

“The democratic processes, led by governments, political forces and movements of the left, confront a new onslaught from imperialism, transnational capital and national oligarchies,” the final declaration warned.

“The decline of imperial hegemony, the impacts of the systemic international crisis and the fall in prices of our export resources, particularly hydrocarbons, bring new challenges.”

Noting that imperialism’s primary target was Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution, the declaration called for the lifting of the recent “arbitrary” US sanctions against the country’s Vice President Tareck El Aissami.

The leaders condemned both neoliberalism — “the doctrine of plunder of all our peoples” — and the “conservative” reaction against it that has “reactivated fundamentalism, xenophobia, racism and militarism.”

Speaking to reporters, Cuban President Raul Castro accused the new government of his US counterpart Donald Trump of selfish commercial protectionism at the expense of Latin American exports and thousands of immigrants.

“The wall that they intend to raise on the Mexican border is an expression of such irrationality, not only against that country but against the whole region,” said Mr Castro.

“Poverty, migrants cannot be contained with walls, but with co-operation, understanding and peace.”

Mr Castro recalled that his late brother and predecessor Fidel “taught us to always resort to history, to be audacious and realistic.

“We bet on the political will to open opportunities for trade and investment.”

In a criticism clearly aimed at unelected Brazilian President Michel Temer, Alba accused right-wing parties across the region of using parliaments, courts and the media to destroy the democratic order that they are meant to defend.