The First Summit of the Americas was convened in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, United States, on December 9–11, 1994. This

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

was the first of a series of events for leaders from countries of the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

. From across North and South America thirty-four nations met in Miami and agreed to create

Free Trade Area of the Americas The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA, , ALCA, Portuguese: ''Área de Livre Comércio das Américas'', ALCA, French: Zone de libre-échange des Amériques, ZLEA) was a proposed agreement to eliminate or reduce the trade barriers among all ...

(FTAA). All countries were welcomed to participate except for

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. The Summit of the Americas accepted a Declaration of Principles to aid in the process of discussing a continent wide trade bloc. The declaration principles included: Partnership for Development and Prosperity which meant that the heads of all the states in the Americas were committed to promote democracy, its values, and various institutions. Another aspect of the agreement was that all of the Americas were to be joined in pursuing prosperity for every nation through open markets. The summit adopted a procedure to preserve and strengthen the community of democracies of the Americas. It was agreed upon that all nations would promote democracy and that citizens have the right to participate in government. The thirty-four nations that met in Miami understood that democracy requires an attack on all corruption which is what the agreement stated. There was also a call to cooperation among the nations in eliminating trafficking of illegal drugs. Another outline in the summit was the procedure to promote prosperity through economic integration and free trade. This required a promotion for all nations there should be no subsidies and nations should not practice in unfair laws.

Overview

The "

Summits of the Americas The Summit of the Americas (SOA) are institutionalized gatherings of heads of state and government of the member states of the Western Hemisphere where leaders discuss common policy issues, affirm shared values and commit to concerted actions at th ...

" is the name for a continuing series of summits bringing together the leaders of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. The function of these summits is to foster discussion of a variety of issues affecting the western hemisphere. These high-level summit meetings have been organized by a number of multilateral bodies under the aegis of the

Organization of American States The Organization of American States (OAS or OEA; ; ; ) is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, the OAS is ...

. In the early 1990s, what were formerly ''ad hoc'' summits came to be institutionalized into a regular "Summits of the Americas" conference program.Twaddle, Andrew C. (2002)
''Health Care Reform Around the World,'' p. 382.
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Protests and demonstrations

The summits which garnered most general public and media attention were the

Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...

and

Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Argentine Sea, Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón Partido, General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires ...

events, both provoking very large

anti-globalization The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist ...

and anti–

protests. Police responses to protesters and demonstrations developed into independent news stories.

Notes

References

External links

Summits of the Americas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Summit of the Americas 1994 Organization of American States Politics of the Americas Diplomatic conferences in the United States 20th-century diplomatic conferences 1994 in international relations 1994 conferences 1994 in South America December 1994 in the United States 1994 in Florida 1990s in Miami Events in Miami