Pan American Conferences

The Pan-American, Inter-American, or International American Conferences are a series of meetings of delegates, ministers of foreign affairs, and presidents of nations of America that were held between 1889 and 1954 within the ideas and principles of Pan-Americanism.

Origins

Tenth Pan American Conference. Aula Magna de la Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, 1954.

Its background, according to some historians, is in the Congress of Panama convened by Simón Bolívar in 1826. The governments of Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and the United States were represented. Later the Spanish Americans met on several occasions, although these efforts were frustrated.

According to Germán de la Reza, those occasions were:

• At the beginning of 1831 Mexico sought to bring governments together around a trade agreement with the commitment to attend the general assembly to be constituted. In 1841 the attempt was failed.
• The First Congress of Lima: on 9 November 1846 Peru extended an invitation that succeeded in bringing together Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and New Grenada between 11 December 1847 and 1 March 1848 in Lima. Although some statements were made on confederation, commercial, postal and consular, only the latter was ratified.
• On September 15, 1856, Peru, Ecuador and Chile celebrated in Santiago the Continental Treaty of the Confederative Union. A confederate citizenship was agreed; alliance against foreign aggressions; national treatment of ships and goods produced by the confederates; adoption of the same system of currencies, pesos and measures, etc. It was not ratified by any of the national congresses.
• In August 1861, the Peruvian Foreign Ministry called for the creation of a “defensive alliance to reject the European reconquest in the event that it is intended, whatever the name with which it is disguised and the power that it intends to perform it”. Next March, Hispanic American Legations in Washington Signed ad referendum a protocol with the bases of the American alliance. However, the consequent adherence to a treaty of respect for sovereignty, non-intervention in internal affairs and the replacement of the Monroe Doctrine by multilateral treaty did not thrive.
• The Second Congress of Lima, which took place in Lima from November 14, 1864 and in the space of fifty-six conferences until its closing on March 13, 1865. It happened during the beginning of the Spanish-American War.

The lack of success and the Golden Age of the Monroe Doctrine, allows the United States to position itself as the false heir of the Spanish-American union congresses of 1826, 1847, 1856 and 1865. In 1889 the United States convenes the First Conference that gradually forms a commercial and technical cooperation system. As well as the creation of hemispheric legislation and diplomacy within the so-called inter-American system expressed in the Organization of American States (OAS), which was created later at the Pan-American Conference in Bogotá in 1948 and 1965.

The Pan-American or Inter-American Conferences

Flag of Hispanity, officially adopted at the 1933 Conference as a Pan American flag.

Capitol of Colombia, Elliptical Hall.

Enrolment for cars belonging to the legations participating in the Pan American Conference of 1936 in Buenos Aires.

• La First Pan American Conference (1889-1890) The Congress of the United States. The U.S. by law of May 24, 1888 approved the summons to a conference that considered regulations in economic matters, the formation of a customs union, the establishment of better communications between the ports, the adoption of the silver pattern, uniformity in systems of weights and measures, rights of patents, author and brands, sanitary and quarantine measures for the ships. The Conference was held in Washington DC between 2 October 1889 and 19 April 1890. All governments of the hemisphere, except the Dominican Republic, attended. The International Office of American Republics was established.

• II Pan American Conference 1901-1902 was held in Mexico. The creation of PAHO is approved;
• III Pan American Conference 1906 in Rio de Janeiro;
• IV Pan American Conference from 1910 in Buenos Aires. In which the International Office of American Republics is called the Pan American Union;
• V Pan American Conference 1923 in Santiago de Chile. Adopts the Gondra Convention;
• VI Pan American Conference 1928 in Havana, where a President of the United States attended for the first time. UU.: Calvin Coolidge, also approved the Private International Law Code.
• VII Pan American Conference 1933 in Montevideo; where the so-called Good Neighbourhood Policy is declared, the treaty of the Montevideo Convention is signed, and all countries unanimously approve the Flag of Hispanity.
• Inter-American Peace-building Conference of 1936, held in Buenos Aires, where the president of the United States attends. (Franklin Delano Roosevelt);
• VIII Pan American Conference 1938 in Lima;
• Inter-American Conference on Problems of War and Peace March 1945 in Chapultepec, Mexico;
• Inter-American Conference on the Maintenance of Peace and Security of the Continent held in Rio de Janeiro in 1947. The bases of the Inter-American Treaty on Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR) or the Rio Treaty are established;
• IX Pan American Conference 1948 in Bogotá. This becomes the most important Pan American conference since the OAS is created through the Charter of the Organization of American States to replace the Pan American Union and the American Treaty on Peaceful Solutions and the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man are approved. It should be recalled that during the course of this conference the events of the "Bogotazo" were presented because of the murder of the leader of the Colombian Liberal Party Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. For this reason the conference had to be moved further north of Bogotá and took place in the Modern Gymnasium.
• X Pan American Conference 1954 in Caracas. Resolutions on propaganda and subversive activities, the abolition of racial segregation and the end of colonialism in the hemisphere are adopted. The Caracas Pact established the danger of “international communism” and the invasion of Guatemala orchestrated by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. This is the last Inter-American Conference, that of Quito scheduled for 1961 was postponed, since then meetings of foreign ministers or special conferences are held under the auspices of the OAS.

Other important meetings

Important meetings are those held between 1939-1942 on the occasion of World War II

• I Meeting of Consultation of Ministers for Foreign Affairs (Panama, September-October 1939);
• II Meeting of Foreign Ministers (Havana, July 1940); and
• III Meeting of Foreign Ministers (Rio de Janeiro, January 1942).
• IV Caribbean Diplomatic and Consulous Consultation Meeting 2001

French and Dutch diplomats reached certain agreements about the Saint Martin projects in the middle of the Caribbean in which they participated. In these meetings were Bruno Delaye and Sacha Passy de Thellier taking a more moderate position regarding the situation of all the French colonies in the Caribbean. There they managed to approve the declarations of war against Germany, Italy and Japan or at least a neutrality more prone to the allied countries. Collaboration and coordination with the United States war effort. Coordination and cooperation in military and intelligence operations. Way of treating spies and nationals of Germany, Italy and allied countries. To this end, the Inter-American Defense Board was created in 1942, in charge of studying and suggesting military defense measures for the American continent.