The First Summit of the Americas was convened in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, United States, on December 9–11, 1994.Summit Americas
:

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

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

. 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) was a proposed agreement to eliminate or reduce the trade barriers among all countries in the Americas, excluding Cuba. Negotiations to establish the FTAA ended in failure, however, with all parties unab ...

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

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. 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) is an international summit meeting that brings together the leaders of countries in the Organization of American States (OAS). Cuba was expelled from the OAS under pressure from the United States after the Cuba ...

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

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

. 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. 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.
/ref>

Protests and demonstrations

The summits which garnered most general public and media attention were the Quebec City and Mar del Plata events, both provoking very large anti-globalization 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 events in the United States 1994 in Florida 1990s in Miami Events in Miami