The 2nd Summit of the Americas was held in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, on April 18–19, 1998. This gathering of regional leaders was the first attempt in four years to negotiate conditions for the creation of a hemispheric free trade area. No final agreements were made, but the nations set up a Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) consisting of vice ministers from each country that would meet every few months. Negotiations began with 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 ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

in 1994.

Overview

The "

Summit 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 Cuban Re ...

" 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 and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

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 southe ...

. 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; es, Organización de los Estados Americanos, pt, Organização dos Estados Americanos, french: Organisation des États américains; ''OEA'') is an international organization that was founded on 30 April ...

. 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> * December 9–11, 1994

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in Miami-Dade County. Founded in 1965, the school opened its doors to students in 1972. FIU has grown to become the third-largest uni ...

Summit of the Americas Center
(SOAC)

-- 1st Summit of the Americas at

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. * December 7–8, 1996 -- Summit of the Americas on Sustainable Development at

Santa Cruz de la Sierra Santa Cruz de la Sierra (; "Holy Cross of the Mountain Range"), commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the largest city in Bolivia and the capital of the Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia), Santa Cruz department. Situated on the Pirai River (Bolivia), P ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

.Summit Americas
Sustainable development

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 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 m ...

and anti–

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 ...

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 1998 Organization of American States Politics of the Americas Diplomatic conferences in Chile 20th-century diplomatic conferences 1998 in Chile 1998 in international relations 1998 in North America 1998 in South America History of Santiago, Chile 1990s in Santiago, Chile April 1998 events in South America Presidency of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle