The Summit of the Americas is an institutionalized set of meetings at the highest level of government in the Western Hemisphere where presidents and delegates from 34 American countries * come together to discuss issues of common interest.

The most recent Summit of the Americas transpired in November of 2005 in Argentina with the theme, "job creation to confront poverty and strengthen democratic governance." Like the previous Summits that date back to 1994, this Summit maintained a focus on strengthening both democracy and economic integration. The latter included the one debate that overshadowed all other issues at the Summit--the now controversial Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement. The FTAA is an economic integration initiative born out of the first two Summits, and at the Fourth Summit of the Americas in Argentina it spurred thorny diplomatic negotiations as well as large scale protests.

The result is regional division, violence and a worrying inability to move forward with the only viable hemispheric initiative capable of creating jobs and alleviating poverty in Latin America.

Background Notes and History

The FTAA is an economic integration initiative born out of the first two Summits, and at the Fourth Summit of the Americas in Argentina it spurred thorny diplomatic negotiations as well as large scale protests.

The Summit of the Americas process started in 1994 in Miami, Florida, in response to an invitation from U.S. President Bill Clinton for all democratic heads of state in the Americas to meet in order to discuss shared issues of vital importance. Since 1994, there have been four official Summits of the Americas taking place in Miami, USA (1994), Santiago, Chile (1998), Quebec City, Canada (2001) and recently in Mar del Plata, Argentina (2005).** The Miami Summit was the first meeting of its kind in 27 years and the largest inter-American summit in history where all the participants were democratically elected. It celebrated the commitment to democracy and market economies in Latin America and kicked off talks regarding a potential hemispheric free trade accord promoted by then U.S. President Clinton. The Santiago Summit reinforced the commitment to open markets and officially launched the more formal negotiations for the FTAA. The Quebec City Summit remained focused on free trade but emphasized the social dimension of hemispheric integration while promoting the role of fair labor practices in strengthening democracy, creating prosperity, and realizing human potential.

While the heads of state and their delegates are the protagonists of the Summits of the Americas, there is a plethora of actors involved in the organization, execution, and follow-up of the Summits. The Summit Implementation Review Group (SIRG) is perhaps the most important of these actors. It is an organization with representation from all 34 democratic nations and is in large part responsible for Summit preparation and post-Summit follow-up. Senior representatives of pertinent international organizations such as the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the United Nations Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and the World Bank also participate in the Summit proceedings and continuously work to support the governments in the SIRG in order to follow up on the commitments of the Summit. Moreover, diverse sectors of Civil Society have played an increasing role in the Summit process over the years. Civil society is involved in many consultations leading to the draft Summit documents and is now included in the official Summit agenda.

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) statistics show that the richest 20 percent of the Latin American population earns 54 percent of the national income, whereas the poorest 20 percent earns only 4 percent.

While there have been some inter-American institutional successes resulting from the Summit process, there are concerns regarding the lack of implementation of Summit declarations and action plans at the national level. One success was the promulgation of The Inter-American Democratic Charter that was born out of the Summit process. The Charter was first promoted in Santiago, Chile in 1998 and finally signed in Lima, Peru on September 11, 2001. Additionally, The Inter-American Committee against Terrorism and the Inter-American Committee against Corruption are also products of the Summit process. These are now permanent agencies within the OAS dedicated to promoting cooperation on counter-terrorism initiatives and efforts to fight corruption throughout the Western Hemisphere. However, one of the central Summit goals of a hemispheric free trade is stalled, and many other action plans proposed at the Summits are never implemented at the national level as local politics tend to dictate public policy on the ground. As is often the case, diplomatic goodwill does not always translate into concrete policy and the Summit process has no real authority over sovereign nation decision-making.

The Fourth Summit of the Americas

The Fourth Summit of the Americas took place on November 4th and 5th in Argentina, a Latin American country that suffered a devastating economic crisis in 2001 that left over half of its population below the poverty level. The recent Summit's agenda for job creation and poverty alleviation reflects Argentina's socio-economic challenges and those of its neighbors. While Argentina's economy has been recovering quickly since the 2001 crash, many people in the country are not benefiting from the historic GDP growth. Argentina's annual GDP rate went from negative figures in 2001 and 2002 to 7.5 percent in 2003 and 6.5 percent in 2004. However, this growth has not been evenly distributed and the gap between the rich and poor in this once predominantly middle-class country continues to grow. Argentina now resembles many other Latin American countries that suffer from inequalities of income. Latin America is in fact the most unequal region of the world. United Nations Development Program (UNDP) statistics show that the richest 20 percent of the Latin American population earns 54 percent of the national income, whereas the poorest 20 percent earns only 4 percent.

Perhaps they raise public awareness regarding social injustices, but the anti-Summits do not seem to provide any politically viable alternatives.

In proposing the job creation, poverty alleviation, and democratic governance theme for the Summit, the President of Argentina argued that there is a global demand for government policies that promote the creation of productive employment. President Nestor Kirchner put forth that our shared future relies on a dual challenge. The first part of the challenge is linking employment with freedom, equity, dignity, and social protection. The second part is connecting these attributes with efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness as a strategy to promote development that expands opportunities for all individuals.

While the participating countries agreed to the proposed theme for the Fourth Summit, their views varied with regard to how to achieve these goals. The U.S., Mexico, and Canada, along with 26 other Latin American and Caribbean nations supported the continuation of FTAA talks. This coalition presented the agreement as the best vehicle to achieve economic growth in the region. The Mercosur countries, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay did not share the majority's enthusiasm for a hemispheric trade agreement and refused to commit to future FTAA talks without a clear recognition of regional asymmetries and a lowering of U.S. agricultural subsidies. Venezuela's charismatic president Hugo Chavez openly criticized President Bush and vehemently rejected his proposals for the FTAA, arguing that such a free trade agreement on U.S. terms is a new form of colonialism. After tiresome negotiations, the heads of state left Mar del Plata without having reached a hemispheric consensus regarding the FTAA.

The Summit declaration stated two opposing views: one favoring the proposed FTAA and another stating that further discussions should wait until after the upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in December. The five dissenting countries stated in the declaration, "the necessary conditions are not yet in place for achieving a balanced and equitable free trade agreement with effective access to markets free from subsidies and trade distorting practices, and that takes into account the needs and sensitivities of all partners, as well as the differences in the levels of development and size of the economies."

The anti-Summit

In the early afternoon of November 4th, before attending with his counterparts the official inauguration of the Fourth Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, accompanied by Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona and leftist revolutionary leader Evo Morales from Bolivia as well as thousands of protesting citizens from around the world, led a parallel heavily televised people's "anti-Summit" in the city's soccer stadium. There were an estimated 40,000 animated spectators in attendance. The purpose of the anti-Summit was to create alternatives to what is considered an agenda of neo-liberal domination and to openly reject the proposed FTAA and all other free trade accords. The official anti-Summit agenda also included a call for nation-wide protests against President Bush upon the U.S. leader's arrival to Argentina.

This was the third anti-Summit assembly and the first where a head of state participated. President Hugo Chavez spoke enthusiastically for over 2 hours against George W. Bush and the FTAA, which he presented as a project of imperial domination. He advocated for a united American community capable of defeating capitalism. Chavez even went as far as proposing an alternative to the FTAA, which he calls the "ALBA", a Spanish acronym standing for "Bolivarian Alternative for the American People". This name plays off the FTAA acronym in Spanish "ALCA" -- calling his proposal the "ALBA" ("Alternativa Bolivariana para el pueblo de las Americas"). The ALBA would be an accord of regional political integration rather than hemispheric economic integration and would aim for the formation of zones free of illiteracy, infant malnutrition, homelessness, and environmental destruction. How they would reach such worthy goals is not clear, which raises questions regarding the political value of the anti-Summits. Perhaps they raise public awareness regarding social injustices, but the anti-Summits do not seem to provide any politically viable alternatives. Nonetheless, Chavez stole the show with Latin American audiences as the anti-Summit received more media coverage than the official Summit. This was in part due to the violent street protests that broke out during the official Summit's opening ceremony which lured media attention away from official proceedings and towards the chaos in the streets.

Conclusion

The Fourth Summit of the Americas and the increasingly important shadow anti-Summit represent the troubling reality of Latin America today. Latin America is a region plagued by inter-governmental disunity, extreme economic inequality, and the low-level violence that tends to accompany poverty and exclusion. Presidents of the hemisphere essentially agreed to disagree regarding the continuation of FTAA talks scheduled tentatively to resume by mid-2006. Yet, there is no viable alternative to the FTAA under consideration despite Chavez's revolutionary ALBA proposal.

The Fourth Summit of the Americas and the increasingly important shadow anti-Summit represent the troubling reality of Latin America today.

Increased access to the U.S. market has the potential to help increase economic growth in Latin American countries. Free trade, together with fair domestic policies, can create more jobs and improve income equality as has happened in Mexico and Chile, two Latin American countries that have entered into free trade accords with the U.S. Some of the concerns regarding hemispheric asymmetries and unfair U.S. farm subsidies raised by Mercosur countries and Venezuela are valid and justified, but that should not preclude these countries from entering into talks and negotiating in their own favor. Today, nearly 70 percent of world commerce is concentrated in North America, Europe, and developed parts of Asia. Latin American countries need to find a way to be a part of this commerce. There are no benefits to withdrawing from international trade negotiations. Mercosur leader President Lula da Silva of Brazil seems to recognize this as just a few days after the Mar del Plata Summit he signed a bilateral agreement with President George W. Bush committing to the FTAA process and future negotiations. Mercosur's popular political alliance with Venezuela at this Fourth Summit now appears opportunistic and fleeting. There is hope that long-term pragmatism towards hemispheric commercial integration will win out over short-term political popularity.




* The 34 Summit of the Americas nations are the same as the 34 member states of the Organization of American States (the 35th OAS member State, Cuba, has been suspended since 1962). The member status are: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Granada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

** In addition to the formal Summits, there was a "Special Summit" about sustainable development in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia in 1996, and an "Extraordinary Summit" in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico in 2004 about economic growth and equity, social development, and democratic governance.




Contributed by Janie Hulse, a freelance writer for Mercy Corps. Ms Hulse is a Rotary World Peace Fellow in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has a Masters degree in Politics of Development in Latin America from the London School of Economics (1998) and has worked extensively with and in the region in both the public and private sectors..

To read a Global Envision interview about The Summit of the Americas, see Civil Society and the Summit of the Americas.



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