ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses Latin American and Caribbean state participation in international organizations at the Latin American regional and sub-regional levels. The nineteenth-century Spanish American congresses are discussed, followed by the complex post-World War II Latin American and Caribbean projects aimed at economic integration and/or political union. The chapter includes a treatment of the Latin American nuclear-free zone, a specialized regional international regime. Finally, it considers some other western hemispheric regimes: US-Panamanian arrangements for the Panama Canal, governance of the US-Mexican border, and the North American Free Trade Agreement and its possible extension to the other Americas. Initial Latin American integration efforts after World War II included both economic and political considerations. Integration revised the common tariff structure, making the European source more expensive, and the state then imported similar automobiles from a regional state. Certain successes also were evident, however, so that efforts toward economic integration continued among Latin American states outside of Central America.