Latin American integration
The integration of Latin America (also called Latinoamericanism) has a history going back to Spanish American and Brazilian independence, when there was discussion of creating a regional state or confederation of Latin American nations to protect the area's newly won autonomy. After several projects failed, the issue was not taken up again until the late 19th century, but now centered on the issue of international trade and with a sense of pan-Americanism, owing to the United States of America taking a leading role in the project. The idea of granting these organizations a primarily political purpose did not become prominent again until the post-World War II period, which saw both the start of the Cold War and a climate of international cooperation that led to the creation of institutions such as the United Nations. It would not be until the mid-20th century that uniquely Latin American organizations were created.
19th-century precedents
At the end of the
As Bolívar made advances against
Other large states that emerged from the disintegration of the Spanish Monarchy also failed to prove long-lived. The
Bolívar also proposed a separate league of the newly independent Spanish American republics, and to this end organized the Amphictyonic Congress or the Congress of Panama in 1826. Bolívar did not invite Brazil, since it was a monarchy and he saw it as a threat to the new republics' existence, nor did he invite the government at Buenos Aires, since the region lacked any real political unity to effectively be represented. Only after pressure was placed on him was the United States invited to the congress, but one representative died en route and the other arrived after deliberations were concluded. The United Kingdom was present only as an observer. The congress did draft a "Treaty of Union, League, and Perpetual Confederation", a pact of mutual defense and commerce, but only Gran Colombia ratified it. Gran Colombia itself fell apart in 1830. Because of these failed projects, Latin American politicians often speak of regional integration as "Bolivar's dream".
Sixty-three years after the Amphictyonic Congress, a secretariat, the Commercial Bureau of the American Republics, was created by eighteen American nations in 1889 at the First Pan-American Conference to promote trade in the western hemisphere. The Commercial Bureau began functioning on 14 April 1890. The bureau was renamed the International Commercial Bureau at the Second International Conference of 1901–1902. At the Fourth Pan-American Conference in 1910, the name of the organization was changed to the Union of American Republics and the International Commercial Bureau became the Pan American Union.
20th century
The experience of
By the late twentieth century, many Latin American leaders saw a need for an alternative organization that was not dominated by the United States. The experience of dealing with the 1970s and 1980s communist insurgencies in
Latin America also reached out to Europe, in particular its former colonial
Latin American organizations
Trade, not politics, also served as the principal issue around which various, uniquely Latin American regional organizations were formed. On 14 October 1951, the governments of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua signed a new treaty creating the
Other regional trade blocs were also established in this period. The Latin American Free Trade Association (ALALC) was formed by the 1960 Treaty of Montevideo, which was signed by Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. The signatories hoped to create a common market in Latin America and offered tariff rebates among member nations. Its main goal was to eliminate all duties and restrictions on the majority of their trade within a twelve-year period. ALALC came into effect on 2 January 1962.[6] Inspired by the European Communities, in 1980 the ALALC was transformed into the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI) by the second Treaty of Montevideo to pursue the more ambitious goal of improving the economic and social development of the region through the establishment of the common market.
In 1969 the Andean Pact was founded by Chile,
In December 2004 Mercosur and the Andean Community of Nations signed a reciprocal associate-member status agreement and issued the Cusco Declaration stating that they would create a political South American Community of Nations. The Declaration purposely invoked "Bolívar's dream," noting that it would be partially realizing his vision of uniting Latin America. The original name of the union was changed to the current one, the Union of South American Nations in April 2007.[10]
The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) created in 2010 is an example of a decade-long push for deeper integration within Latin America without United States and Canada. CELAC was created to deepen Latin American integration and by some to reduce the significant influence of the United States on the politics and economics of Latin America. It is seen as an alternative to the Organization of American States (OAS), the regional body that was founded by United States and 21 other Latin American nations originally as a countermeasure to potential Soviet influence in the region.
Following the 2011 Declaration de Lima, the Pacific Alliance was established in 2012 by the founding members Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. As of 2015[update], Costa Rica is in the process of joining. While membership is currently exclusively Latin American, a potential membership application by Canada is being considered favorably by some.[11][12]
In 2021 and 2022, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, president of Mexico, advocated for a regional union, comprising the nations of the Americas, resembling the European Union.[13][14][15][16][17]
Organization membership
Country | OAS | CELAC | ACS | Caricom | OECS | UNASUR | PROSUR
|
CAN | MERCOSUR
|
LAP | LAIA | LAES | RG | SICA | ALBA
|
PA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Canada | x | o | o | |||||||||||||
USA | x | o | ||||||||||||||
Mexico | x | x | x | o | o | x | x | x | x | x | ||||||
Guatemala | x | x | x | x | o | x | x | x | o | |||||||
El Salvador | x | x | x | x | o | x | x | x | o | |||||||
Honduras | x | x | x | x | o | x | x | x | o | |||||||
Nicaragua | x | x | x | x | o | x | x | x | x | |||||||
Costa Rica | x | x | x | x | o | x | x | x | a | |||||||
Dominican Republic | x | x | x | o | x | o | x | x | a | o | ||||||
Panama | x | x | x | o | x | o | x | x | x | o | ||||||
Cuba | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |||||||||
Venezuela | x | x | x | o | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |||||
Colombia | x | x | x | o | x | x | a | x | x | x | x | x | ||||
Ecuador | x | x | o | x | x | a | x | x | x | x | x | |||||
Peru | x | x | o | s | x | x | a | x | x | x | x | x | ||||
Chile | x | x | x | x | a | x | x | x | x | x | ||||||
Bolivia | x | x | o | x | a | a | x | x | x | x | x | |||||
Paraguay | x | x | o | x | a | x | x | x | x | x | ||||||
Uruguay | x | x | a | x | x | x | x | x | o | o | ||||||
Argentina | x | x | x | a | x | x | x | x | x | o | o | |||||
Brazil | x | x | o | x | a | x | x | x | x | x | ||||||
Antigua and Barbuda | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||||||||||
Bahamas | x | x | x | x | x | |||||||||||
Barbados | x | x | x | x | x | |||||||||||
Belize | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |||||||||
Dominica | x | x | x | x | x | x | o | |||||||||
Grenada | x | x | x | x | x | x | o | |||||||||
Guyana | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||||||||
Haiti | x | x | x | x | x | x | o | |||||||||
Jamaica | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||||||||||
Saint Kitts and Nevis | x | x | x | x | x | |||||||||||
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||||||||||
Saint Lucia | x | x | x | x | x | |||||||||||
Suriname | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||||||||
Trinidad and Tobago | x | x | x | x | x | o | ||||||||||
Montserrat | x | x | ||||||||||||||
Anguilla | a | a | ||||||||||||||
Bermuda | a | |||||||||||||||
British Virgin Islands | a | a | ||||||||||||||
Cayman Islands | a | |||||||||||||||
Turks and Caicos Islands | a | a | ||||||||||||||
Aruba | a | o | ||||||||||||||
Curaçao | a | |||||||||||||||
Netherlands | a | o | ||||||||||||||
Sint Maarten | a | o | ||||||||||||||
France | o | a | o | |||||||||||||
Puerto Rico | o | |||||||||||||||
U.S. Virgin Islands | ||||||||||||||||
map | ||||||||||||||||
map with observers | ||||||||||||||||
Country | OAS | CELAC | ACS | Caricom | OECS | UNASUR | PROSUR
|
CAN | MERCOSUR
|
LAP | LAIA | LAES | RG | SICA | ALBA
|
PA |
Legend: [x - member] — [a - associate or acceding] — [o - observer]
x - member; o - observer; a - associate/acceding
Public support
Public support for Latin American integration is generally high but has been declining in many South and Central American countries over time. According to one study based on Latinobarómetro data, 73% of Latin Americans support economic integration and 63% support political integration in Latin America.[18] It was also found that in most Latin American countries (twelve out of seventeen), support for economic integration was lower in 2010 than in 1997 and support for political integration decreased in nearly all countries (14 out of 17) between 2002 and 2010.[18] Support for economic and political integration is higher among men than among women and increases with educational level. Coinciding with the shift to the left in Latin American politics (pink tide), the political left surpassed the right and, at least in the case of support for political integration, also the center, to become the political wing favoring integration most highly.[18] That trend is a divergence from the picture found in Europe for support of European integration, which is generally highest among the political center.
See also
- Antillean Confederation
- Community of Latin American and Caribbean States
- European integration
- Organization of Ibero-American States
- Panhispanism
- Pan-Americanism
- Pan-Latinism
- Patria Grande
- Regional integration
Bibliography
- Rivera, Salvador. 'Latin American Unification: A History of Political and Economic Integration Efforts. North Carolina: McFarland Press, 2014.
- Rivera, Salvador. "Jacob K. Javits and Latin American Economic Integration". Cuaderno de Negocios Internacionales e Integración 13. No. 64/65. July–December 2007.
References
- ISBN 978-0-19-517881-4
- OCLC 569544
- ISBN 0-8371-2981-8
- ^ Chasteen, Americanos, 164-165.
- OCLC 8633466
- ^ Schmitter, Philippe C. (1964). Mexico and Latin American Economic Integration. California: Institute of International Studies, 1.
- ^ Venezuela officially welcomed into Mercosur trade bloc during ceremony in Brazil (31 July 2012)[dead link] Reuters. Retrieved on 1 August 2012
- ^ "Bolivia Formalizes Request for Full Mercosur Membership". Archived from the original on 29 January 2013.
- ^ "Bolivia will hold double membership of Mercosur and the Andean Community". MercoPress. 24 June 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
- ISBN 978-0798304030.
- ^ Clark, Campbell (20 May 2013). "Canada called 'a natural fit' for Pacific Alliance". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
- ^ Scoffield, Heather (23 May 2013). "Harper says it's 'too early' to decide whether to join Pacific Alliance". The Canadian Press. Bell Media. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
- ^ Doherty, Erin; Gonzalez, Oriana (6 June 2022). "Mexico's president confirms he will skip the Summit of the Americas". Axios. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
López Obrador said he hopes to visit the White House in July to talk to Biden about the "integration" of all American countries, with the goal of forming something similar to the European Union.
- ^ "Mexico's Lopez Obrador to skip Biden's Summit of the Americas over 'exclusion' of some countries". France 24. 6 June 2022. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
The Mexican president said that he would still visit the White House in July where he would look to discuss pan-American "integration." … "That's how they created the European Community and then that became the European Union. That's what we need to do in America," he said.
- ^ "López Obrador pide crear en Latinoamérica "algo semejante" a la Unión Europea". Los Angeles Times en Español (in Spanish). 24 July 2021. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
- ^ Menéndez, Carmen (25 July 2021). "López Obrador propone crear "algo semejante" a la UE en Latinoamérica". euronews (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 July 2022.
- ^ Carrillo, Emmanuel (14 March 2022). "Debe buscarse integración de América, plantea AMLO a Fernández". Forbes México (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 July 2022.
- ^ ISSN 1542-4278.