The Special Summit of the Americas held on January
12 and 13, 2004, in Monterrey, Mexico was the first meeting of all democratic heads of state from
Latin America, the United States and Canada that are members of the Organization of American
States (OAS) since the Quebec Summit in April 2001. At the Monterrey Summit, leaders discussed
broad issues affecting countries in the hemisphere at length, such as free trade and corruption. Their
primary accomplishment, however, was to renew their commitments to implementing the Quebec
City Summit Declaration and Plan of Action by issuing the Declaration of Nuevo León. Rather than
adopting numerous new initiatives, the declaration focuses on achieving a few measurable
objectives. Those objectives include halving the cost of sending remittances by 2008, endorsing the
Inter-American Development Bank's goal of tripling credit for small and medium-sized businesses
by 2007, and fighting corruption by denying safe haven to corrupt officials and their assets. The
Fourth Summit of the Americas will be held in Argentina in November 2005. One of the major
themes that will be discussed at the next Summit is employment in the hemisphere. This report will
not be updated.