Summit of the Americas
Encyclopedia
The Summits of the Americas (SOA) is a series of international summit meetings
Summit (meeting)
A summit meeting is a meeting of heads of state or government, usually with considerable media exposure, tight security and a prearranged agenda.Notable summit meetings include those of Franklin D...

 bringing together the leaders of countries in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

, South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

 and the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

. Neither the elderly leader nor a representative from Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

 participated in this summit. The meetings provide an opportunity for discussions about a variety of issues and topics.

The summits have been organized by a number of multilateral bodies led by the Organization of American States
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...

.

In the early 1990s, what were formerly ad hoc summits came to be institutionalized into a regular "Summit of the Americas" based on the principles of democracy and free trade.
  • December 9-11, 1994 -- 1st Summit of the Americas at Miami
    Miami, Florida
    Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

     in the United States
    United States
    The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

    .

  • December 7-8, 1996 -- Summit of the Americas on Sustainable Development at Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia
    Bolivia
    Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

    .

  • April 18-19, 1998 -- 2nd Summit of the Americas at Santiago in Chile
    Chile
    Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

    .

  • April 20-22, 2001 -- 3rd Summit of the Americas, in Quebec City, Canada
    Canada
    Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

    .

  • January 12-13, 2004 -- Monterrey Special Summit of the Americas
    Monterrey Special Summit of the Americas
    The Special Summit of the Americas was held on January 12 and 13, 2004 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.This summit is part of the Summit of the Americas initiative which is carried on by the Organization of American States with the purpose of bringing together the Heads of State and Government in...

     at Monterrey
    Monterrey
    Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the...

     in Mexico
    Mexico
    The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

    .

  • November 4-5, 2005 -- 4th Summit of the Americas at Mar del Plata
    Mar del Plata
    Mar del Plata is an Argentine city located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, south of Buenos Aires. Mar del Plata is the second largest city of Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" had apparently the sense of "sea of the Río de la Plata region" or "adjoining sea to the Río de la Plata"...

     in Argentina
    Argentina
    Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

    .

  • April 17-19, 2009 -- 5th Summit of the Americas
    5th Summit of the Americas
    The Fifth Summit of the Americas was held at Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobagofrom April 17 to 19, 2009.Organizers planned for the Fifth Summit to focus on a wide-ranging theme: "Securing Our Citizens' Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy Security and Environmental...

     at Port-of-Spain in Trinidad and Tobago
    Trinidad and Tobago
    Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...

    .

  • 2012 -- 6th Summit of the Americas at Cartagena
    Cartagena, Colombia
    Cartagena de Indias , is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department...

     in Colombia
    Colombia
    Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

    .


The summits that garnered most general public and media attention were the Quebec City and Mar del Plata events, both of which provoked very large anti-globalization
Anti-globalization movement
The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalisation movement, is critical of the globalization of corporate capitalism. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist movement, anti-corporate globalization movement, or...

 and anti–Free Trade Area of the Americas
Free Trade Area of the Americas
The Free Trade Area of the Americas , , ) was a proposed agreement to eliminate or reduce the trade barriers among all countries in the Americas but Cuba. In the last round of negotiations, trade ministers from 34 countries met in Miami, United States, in November 2003 to discuss the proposal...

 protests and attendant police response.

See also

  • Americas Energy and Climate Symposium
    Americas Energy and Climate Symposium
    Americas Energy and Climate Symposium is the first major energy event after the Summit of the Americas in April 2009, where U.S. President Barack Obama announced the formation of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas . ECPA is a voluntary and flexible framework for advancing energy...

  • Inter-American Social Protection Network

External links

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