The sixth Summit of the Americas (Spanish: VI Cumbre de las Américas) was held at Cartagena, Colombia, on April 14–15, 2012.

[6] The host president Juan Manuel Santos said of the expectations for the summit that "if the United States realises its long-term strategic interests are not in Afghanistan or Pakistan, but in Latin America...there will be great results.

"[6] The U.S. and Canada cited a clause in the OAS charter that only includes democratically elected governments for their decisions not to invite Cuba.

"[6] Host Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín said that the exclusion of Cuba and the Cuban blockade would be brought up by several countries including Argentina, Nicaragua and Peru.

"[7] Argentinean Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said he hoped the summit would result in a "new manifestation of solidarity" over the dispute of the islands.

[6] Out of the 34 countries present at the summit the positions of two of them, Canada (opposed) and the U.S. (neutral), prevented the achievement of a joint statement supporting Argentina's claim over the Falklands.

[15][16] The discussions at the summit included Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's criticism of U.S. expansionist monetary policy that she said was contributing to uncontrolled capital inflows causing emerging market currencies to appreciate and would hurt trade competitiveness.

He also opened the summit with the issue of Cuba: "It's an anachronism that keeps us anchored to a Cold War era we came out of various decades ago.

For his part, despite saying, the United States wanted to work "as equal partners with our brothers and sisters in Latin America and the Caribbean" because of the potential for trade between "nearly a billion consumers", Obama dismissed a possibility of reform on the United States' Cuba policy and drug legalisation:[17] Sometimes those controversies date back to before I was born.

But I think that given the pressures that a lot of governments are under here, under-resourced, overwhelmed by violence, it's completely understandable that they would look for new approaches, and we want to cooperate with them.Guatemala's Otto Pérez Molina worked with Honduras' Porfirio Lobo and Costa Rica's Laura Chinchilla to cover ground over the legalisation of drugs.

[4] Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said of Obama that his inner circle of advisers deliberately ensure that he is kept ignorant of the regional reality and that it was distasteful to Latin Americans that he visited Cartagena.

He further suggested that Ortega prove that there was a lack of transparency about the summit after the Obama Administration offered no new change to policy while trying to "conceal" the unanimous support for Cuba amongst CELAC countries, saying of Obama's summit speech that he was "an intelligent man, but he failed to behave as a statesman by avoiding issues like Cuba and the Argentinian claim of sovereignty over the illegally seized Falklands."

"Unless the U.S. really understands Latin America and the Caribbean, there would be no restructuring of a new approach in relations among equals, as promised by Obama, because we demand respect.

"[24] Canada's Stephen Harper was, however, reportedly considering a final declaration that would include calls for the reincorporation of Cuba without conditions, albeit with their reservations.

[27][28][29][30] The decision to send the agents back to the United States was initiated by the head of the Secret Service's field office in Miami, Paula Reid, who served as liaison between the Secret Service, local governments and other U.S. agencies involved in preparing for President Obama's visit to Colombia, after she received rumours of an unpaid prostitute knocking on doors and yelling in the hallway of a neighbouring hotel.

[36] As of 24 April 2012, 12 Secret Service Agents, among them two supervisors,[37] are involved in the controversy, six of them have lost their jobs and six other are on administrative leave pending an internal investigation,[38] 12 United States Armed Forces members, whose security clearances have been suspended by the Pentagon,[39] are under investigation by the U.S. military and about 20 Colombian women[30] are suspected of having spent the night with members of the Secret Service at the Hotel Caribe.

He added that the head of the Southern Command General Douglas Fraser had started an investigation of the issue; he expressed his "disappoint[ment] by the entire incident and that this behaviour is not in keeping with the professional standards expected of members of the United States military."

I can't help but think what if the women involved had been spies, what if they had been members of a drug cartel, what if they had planted equipment or eavesdropping devices?

White House spokesman Jay Carney added that "Sullivan acted quickly in response to this incident, and he's overseeing an investigation as we speak.

[42][43] Napolitano stated during her hearing that the Secret Service's Office of Professional Responsibility had received no complaints of misconduct similar to what happened in Cartagena over the past two-and-a-half years,[44] expressed her confidence in Secret Service director Mark J. Sullivan, called the allegations against the implicated agents "inexcusable"[43] and promised a thorough investigation by saying: "We will leave no stone unturned.

[53][54][55] The changes prohibit agents from visiting "non-reputable establishments"[53] or consuming alcohol ten hours before starting work.

[53] An investigation by the Homeland Security Office of Inspector General concluded, in September 2012, that 13 agency staffers had "personal encounters" with local women during the summit.

According to BBC News, "it is not thought that he had compromised national security with his relationship, but rather violated the agency's own administrative rules by failing to disclose it.

"[7] Haitian President Michel Martelly was also absent because of medical issues, but he was represented by Foreign Minister Laurent Lamothe.

"[4] Alex Main of the Center for Economic and Policy Research suggested that Obama's claims in the 5th Summit of the Americas to start a "new chapter" in the United States' hemispheric relations would be undone by following the past practices of his predecessor George W. Bush as he could call on the Colombian and Panamanian free trade agreement and offer reform to Cuba–United States relations, including having the country participate at the next summit.

He concluded in saying that there could be a firmer view that the "Summit of the Americas has become an archaic instrument of US policy" due to the lack of reform in the U.S.' direction in hemispheric relations whereas the rest of the region has moved towards Latin American integration with such moves as the formation of multilateral bodies such as Mercosur, ALBA, UNASUR and CELAC to counteract the OAS in its exclusion of the United States and Canada.

[65] Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America said of the waning influence of the summit that "the label 'Americas' doesn't seem to mean that much anymore unless you're a cartographer.