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On April 13 and 14, 2018 the 8th Summit of the Americas takes place in Lima, Peru under the central theme “Democratic Governance against Corruption”.
And while preparations are in full swing and news agencies outdo themselves with reporting tiniest details, many asked themselves what is this “abstract” Summit of the Americas and which purpose does it serve?
According to the Summit of Americas website “The Summits of the Americas are institutionalized gatherings of the heads of state and government of the Western Hemisphere where leaders discuss common policy issues, affirm shared values and commit to concerted actions at the national and regional level to address continuing and new challenges faced in the Americas”.
So, initiated in 1994 the Summit of the Americas, which is based on the principles of democracy and free trade, is a series of international summit meetings bringing together Heads of State and Government of the Americas to discuss important challenges and current topics, to jointly define cross-national plans of action and to promote positive changes at the highest political level.
The Summit of the Americas takes place roughly every three years in one of the member states of the Organization of American States (OAS). The last summits were held in Miami, USA (1994), Santiago, Chile (1998), Quebec, Canada (2001), Mar del Plata, Argentina (2005), Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (2009), Cartagena, Colombia (2012) and Panama City, Panama (2015).
And this year Peru hosts the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima and welcomes presidents, leaders and other high-ranking officials from 34 countries on the American continent to discuss under the Summit’s central theme “Democratic Governance against Corruption” – a highly important and “hot” topic considering the Odebrecht corruption scandal that has shaken Latin America in the last couple of years and the everywhere present corruption in many member states of the OAS.
Before the main events on April 13 and 14, smaller meetings and get-togethers including the Civil Society Forum, the Indigenous Peoples Forum, the V Young Americas Forum, the III Gathering of the ParlAmericas Open Parliament Network, the III Americas Business Summit and the Dialogue between Social Actors and high-level Government Representatives takes place from April 10 to 12.
Expected in Lima to participate in the 8th Summit of the Americas are presidents and leaders including their delegations from
- Antigua and Barbuda - Prime Minister Gaston Browne
- Argentina - President Mauricio Macri
- Bahamas - Prime Minister Hubert Minnis
- Barbados - Prime Minister Freundel Stuart
- Belize - Prime Minister Dean Barrow
- Bolivia - President Evo Morales
- Brazil - President Michel Temer
- Canada - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
- Chile - President Sebastián Piñera
- Colombia - President Juan Manuel Santos
- Costa Rica - President Luis Guillermo Solís
- Cuba - President Raul Castro
- Dominica - Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit
- Dominican Republic - President Danilo Medina
- Ecuador - President Lenín Moreno
- El Salvador - President Salvador Sánchez Cerén
- Grenada - Prime Minister Keith Mitchell
- Guatemala - President Jimmy Morales
- Guyana - President David A. Granger
- Haiti - President Jovenel Moïse
- Honduras - President Juan Orlando Hernández
- Jamaica - Prime Minister Andrew Holness
- Mexico - President Enrique Peña Nieto
- Nicaragua - President Daniel Ortega
- Panama - President Juan Carlos Varela
- Paraguay - President Horacio Cartes
- Peru - President Martín Vizcarra
- Saint Kitts and Nevis - Prime Minister Timothy Harris
- Saint Lucia - Prime Minister Allen Chastanet
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves
- Suriname - President Dési Bouterse
- Trinidad and Tobago - Prime Minister Keith Rowley
- United States of America - President Donald Trump
- Uruguay - President Tabaré Vázquez
By the way the invitation of Venezuela was revoked in February 2018 by former Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski due to the political situation in the country.
As we reported earlier this week the days of the 8th Summit of the Americas were declared non-working days in Lima and Callao.
