The 2004 South American Summit – the third of its kind, after earlier events in Brasília (September 2000) and Guayaquil (July 2002) – was held in Cuzco and Ayacucho, Peru, on 7 –9 December 2004.

Ayacucho was chosen for symbolic reasons: it was there that Antonio José de Sucre, fighting under the banner of Simón Bolívar "the Liberator", defeated the last Imperial Spanish troops in South America on 9 December 1824.

While the organisation's exact nature and functions – and even its name – remain unclear, it aspires to evolve along the lines followed by the continental integration efforts of the European Union, rather than becoming a mere free-trade area.

The FTAA process has been stalemated for more than 12 months in the wake of irreconcilable differences, largely along the geopolitical faultlines between Latin America and the Caribbean on the one hand and the United States and Canada on the other.

Mexico (Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez) and Panama (President Martín Torrijos) are also attending the event, with nonparticipating observer status.