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G-50 Timeline
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The G-50 holds its First Annual Meeting. Distinguished speakers include David Gergen, former political advisor to U.S. Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan, William Donaldson, Chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and Michel Camdessus, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), among others.
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On January 1 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is implemented. That same day, Zapatistas launch an armed uprising in Chiapas, claiming that NAFTA will destroy the indigenous populations of Mexico.
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Rafael Caldera is elected president of Venezuela in February.
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Luis Donaldo Colosio, candidate of the ruling PRI and hand-picked successor to Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, is assassinated in March while campaigning in Tijuana. Ernesto Zedillo is picked as the next president.
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As Minister of Finance, Fernando Henrique Cardoso develops The Brazilian Economic Stabilization Program - known as the Real Plan - to help Brazil overcome problems with high inflation, substituting the currency then in use (Cruzeiro) for the Real in March.
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Eduardo Frei becomes president of Chile in March.
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In Buenos Aires the Jewish Community Center is bombed in July, killing 85 people and injuring more than 200.
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After the UN Security Council authorizes all necessary means to facilitate the departure of Haiti's military leadership and restore the constitutionally elected government, the U.S. leads a military intervention and paves the way for Jean-Bertrand Aristide and other elected officials in exile to return on October 15.
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After 7 ½ years of negotiations, the Uruguay Round is concluded in December, bringing about the biggest reform of the world's trading system since the creation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and leading to the formation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995.
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In December, MERCOSUR is formally created by the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
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The First Summit of the Americas is held in Miami in December, with the region's leaders agreeing to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by 2005.
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Mexico's currency is devalued in December and the ensuing financial crash unleashes the "Tequila Effect" that rocks the economies of the region.
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