Latin American integration
Most of those who fought for independence identified with both their birth provinces and Spanish America as a whole, both of which they referred to as their patria, a term which incorporates meanings contained today in the English words "fatherland" and "homeland".
[1] As Bolívar made advances against royalist forces, he began to propose the creation of various large states and confederations, inspired by Francisco de Miranda's idea of an independent state consisting of all of Spanish America, which Miranda variously called "Colombia", the "American Empire" or the "American Federation".
[2] In 1819, Bolívar was able to successfully create a nation called "Colombia" (today referred to as Gran Colombia) out of several Spanish American provinces; in 1825, he proposed joining it to Peru and Upper Peru in a confederation or state that he suggested be called the "Bolivian Federation" or "Bolivian Union" and which historians refer to as the "Andean Confederation", but this never came about.
Only Mexico, which consisted of the core areas of the Viceroyalty of New Spain remained as a physically large state in Latin America.
Only after pressure was placed on him was the United States invited to the congress, but one representative died en route and the other arrived after deliberations were concluded.
The congress did draft a "Treaty of Union, League, and Perpetual Confederation", a pact of mutual defense and commerce, but only Gran Colombia ratified it.
The Rio Group did not create a secretariat or permanent body and instead chose to rely on yearly summits of heads of states.
Latin America also reached out to Europe, in particular its former colonial mother countries, to create other regional organizations based around common languages and cultures.
Trade, not politics, also served as the principal issue around which various, uniquely Latin American regional organizations were formed.
The Latin American Free Trade Association (ALALC) was formed by the 1960 Treaty of Montevideo, which was signed by Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.
The signatories hoped to create a common market in Latin America and offered tariff rebates among member nations.
[6] Inspired by the European Communities, in 1980 the ALALC was transformed into the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI) by the second Treaty of Montevideo to pursue the more ambitious goal of improving the economic and social development of the region through the establishment of the common market.
This eventually led to the founding of Mercosur by Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina in 1991 to promote free trade and the fluid movement of goods, people, and currency.
Following the 2011 Declaration de Lima, the Pacific Alliance was established in 2012 by the founding members Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
[18] That trend is a divergence from the picture found in Europe for support of European integration, which is generally highest among the political center.
