By the early 1990s, after decades of civil war and military rule in parts of the hemisphere, 34 of the 35 governments in the region were elected civilian democracies. Likewise, most of the countries in the region discarded statist economic policies in favor of economic liberalization. In order to build on these values shared by the United States and Latin America as well as develop an agenda for the hemisphere's future, President Clinton organized the first modern Summit of the Americas. Held in Miami in 1994, the Summit was the first meeting of the region's leaders since 1967 and was attended by all 34 democratically elected heads of government in the region, excluding only Fidel Castro of Cuba. After much discussion, the region's leaders approved a comprehensive Plan of Action with 23 separate initiatives under four major themes: p reserving and strengthening the community of d emocracies of the Americas , promoting prosperity through economic integration and free t rade , eradicating poverty and discrimination in the hemisphere, and guaranteeing sustainable development and conserving the n atura l environment for future g enerations . One of t he most important initiative s to emerge from the Miami Summit was the agreement to work towards the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) , which was to be completed by January 1, 2005 . Between the 1994 Miami Summit and the 2009 Port of Spain Summit , there were three Summits of the Americas and two Special Summits of the Americas , each introducing new initiatives and producing extensive Plans of Action . In 1996, a Special Summit on Sustainable Development was held in Santa Cruz, Bolivia , focusing on environmental issues in the hemisphere. In 1998, Santiago, Chile hosted the second Summit of the Am ericas. The Santiago Summit focused on education , but also marked the initiation of negotiations over the FTAA. Quebec City, Canada hosted the third Summit of the Americas in 2001. The Quebec City Summit produced a commitment to democracy, led to the creation of the Int er-American Democratic Charter, and generated a preliminary draft of the FTAA. Another Special Summit of the Americas was held in Monterrey, Mexico in 2004 . The Monterrey Summit produced the Declaration of Nuevo León, which reaffirmed the region's commitment to implementing the Quebec City Plan of Action. These S ummits have been complemented by regular meetings of the ministers of defense, education, finance, justice, labor, and trade of the countries of the region. The Summit of the Americas process has been gradually institutionalized by the Organization of American States (OAS), with the third Summit designating the OAS as the Secretariat of the Summit Process. The fourth Summit of the Americas , which immediately preceded the Port of Spain Summit, was held in Mar del Plata, Argentina in November 2005. Althou gh the theme of the Summit was " Creating jobs to fight poverty and strengthen democratic g overnance," debate largely centered around the Bush Administration's proposal to resume negotiations on the FTAA. President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela led the opposition to the proposal, speaking to proteste rs at the parallel ' People's Summit, ' who gathered to demonstrate —sometimes violen tly—against President Bush, U.S. military involvement in Iraq, and the FTAA. Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay —member countries of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur)—a lso opposed the resumption of talks on the FTAA. The Mercosur countries oppose d the continuation of U.S. a gricultural subsidies and argue d that talks should not resume until after conclusion of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Doha Development Round , when there may be a greater possibility of achieving what they would consider a balanced and equitable agreement. Despite consensus among 29 of the 34 heads of state and government that trade talks should resume, the economic weight of the dissenting countries effectively killed the FTAA . According to some observers, one of the greatest political accomplishments of the Summit process has been the Inter-American Democratic Charter. In the Declaration of Quebec City, the leaders of the Americas committed to a democracy clause, which led to the creation of the Inter-American Democratic Charter in September 2001. The Charter affirms the peoples of the Americas' universal right to democracy and asserts that the governments of the region have an obligation to promote and defend democracy. Although it has produced somewhat mixed results, the Inter-American Democratic Charter has been invoked on several occasions following challenges to democratic institutions in the region, such as the attempted coup against President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela in 2002 and the removal of President Lucio Guttierez from office by Ecuador's Congress in 2005. The Summits have also led to several important economic initiatives in the hemisphere. In the Declaration of Nuevo León, the leaders of the hemisphere committed to reducing the average cost of remittance transfers by at least 50% by 2008. Between 2000 and 2006, transaction costs to send remittances were reduced from 15% to 5.6%, allowing $5 billion more to reach recipient families. The United States has played a large role in reducing the transaction costs of remittances by encouraging competition, eliminating some regulations, and promoting the use of new technology. The cost of sending remittances through some corridors between the United States and Mexico has fallen by 50% and the United States has begun to partner with other countries like Guatemala in hopes of achieving similar cost reductions. In addition to political and economic initiatives, the Summits of the Americas have prompted some successful social programs. The Declaration of Nuevo León set the goal of providing anti-retroviral therapy to 600,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the hemisphere by 2005. As a result of funding from a variety of multilateral, bilateral, and domestic initiatives, over 640,000 people in the region were receiving treatment by the time of the 2005 Mar del Plata Summit, exceeding the Nuevo León goal. These initiatives included the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Additionally, the U.S. government helped over 400,000 people in the region get tested for HIV and spent over $552 million on HIV/AIDS programs in the hemisphere between 2001 and 2007. This represented a substantial increase in funding, rising from just $22 million in 2001 to over $153 million in 2007. The Summits of the Americas process has drawn criticism throughout its brief history. Civil society and anti-globalization organizations contend that the Summits lack openness and transparency. These groups argue that important discussions that affect the welfare of all people in the region should not be held behind closed doors and that the Summits should be open to civil society representatives. The exclusivity of the Summits and the large role that negotiations over the FTAA have played at each of the Summits have led some civil society groups to assert that the Summits promote the expansion of corporate power while ignoring social welfare, environmental protection, and citizens' rights. Although the countries of the region agreed in the Declaration of Quebec City that the Summits must be open, transparent, and include civil society, many civil society groups contend that little has been done to increase their participation. A number of observers have also criticized the Summits of the Americas for producing overly-ambitious documents that repeatedly mandate new initiatives while largely ignoring the status of implementation of previous Summit commitments. Since the first Summit of the Americas, over 600 initiatives have been introduced. Many of these mandates provide no criteria for measuring their implementation. Likewise, there are few mechanisms to enforce implementation of those initiatives that are measurable. Furthermore, many countries lack the organizational capacity, political will, or financial resources to implement the Summits' mandates. As a result, most Summit commitments have never been met. The failure of many countries to implement the Summits' mandates has cast doubt upon the effectiveness of the Summit process and called into question the credibility of the Summits of the Americas as an mechanism for achieving tangible results in the hemisphere. Some analysts, acknowledging the divergence of economic values among countries of the region, have begun to question whether the Summit of the Americas process is worth continuing. Whereas the Summit process was initiated in a spirit of cooperation by like-minded leaders in Miami in 1994, the hemisphere is now more divided than at any time since the Cold War. The dismissal of the Bush Administration's proposal to resume talks on the FTAA at the Mar del Plata Summit was a clear manifestation of the increasing number of leaders and countries in the region that reject neoliberal economic policies. Indeed, the most recent Latinobarómetro survey found that while 56% of Latin Americans agree that a market economy is the only path to development, only 32% are satisfied with services that have been privatized and majorities in every Latin American nation think their countries should rely more on state solutions than market solutions to resolve societal problems. Given these economic divisions and the movement of the Summit agenda away from the FTAA and toward state-based development programs, some analysts believe the interests of the United States would be better served by focusing instead on finalizing bilateral and multilateral agreements with those countries that still share the U.S. commitment to free trade. The fifth Summit of the Americas was held April 17-19, 2009 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. All 34 democratically elected leaders of the hemisphere attended the Summit, many for the first time, including President Obama and Presidents Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, Morales of Bolivia, Bachelet of Chile, Arias of Costa Rica, Correa of Ecuador, Colom of Guatemala, Zelaya of Honduras, Calderón of Mexico, Ortega of Nicaragua, Lugo of Paraguay, and García of Peru.