2. OAS
Who they are: Member Nations:
• The Organization of American States is the • The following 21 member states met in
world’s oldest regional organization. Bogotá, Colombia, in 1948 to sign the OAS
• The OAS came into being in 1948 with the Charter:
signing in Bogotá, Colombia, of the Charter Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia,
of the OAS, which entered into force in Costa Rica, Cuba1, Dominican
December 1951. Republic, Ecuador, El
• The Organization was established in order to Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Me
achieve among its member states—"an order xico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru,
of peace and justice, to promote their United States of America, Uruguay, and
solidarity, and to defend their sovereignty, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of).
their territorial integrity, and their • Subsequently, the following 14 member
independence." states joined: Barbados, Trinidad and
Tobago (1967); Jamaica (1969); Grenada
(1975); Suriname (1977); Dominica
(Commonwealth of), Saint Lucia (1979);
Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and
the Grenadines (1981); The Bahamas
(Commonwealth of) (1982); St. Kitts &
Nevis (1984); Canada (1990); Belize and
Guyana (1991).
3. OAS
Purpose/Goals:
• To strengthen the peace and security of the continent
• To promote and consolidate representative democracy, with due respect for
the principle of nonintervention
• To provide for common action on the part of those States in the event of
aggression
• To achieve an effective limitation of conventional weapons that will make it
possible to devote the largest amount of resources to the economic and social
development of the Member States.
