ABSTRACT
The Rio Group was established at a meeting of the heads of state of eight Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela) in Rio de Janeiro on 18 December 1986, by the Declaration of Rio de Janeiro, which established a Permanent Mechanism for Consultation and Co-operation (Mecanismo Permanente de Consulta y Cooperación). It was formed to provide a forum for discussion of regional issues, including the civil wars then under way in Central America, regional security arrangements, the problems of debt and development and Cuba’s role in Latin America, and was initially commonly referred to as the ‘Group of Eight’. There is no permanent secretariat, its location rotating instead between the member countries according to the venue of the current summit.
