According to a recent study by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), trade among the countries of the region has fallen to its lowest level in nearly two decades. The report indicates that intraregional trade declined from a historic peak of 21% of the region’s total exports in 2008 to just 14% in 2024, leaving Latin America as one of the regions with the lowest levels of internal trade integration in the world.
In this regard, Julieta María Bonini, a political scientist specializing in geopolitics and international security, said in an interview with the Social Research Center that the region’s problem lies in the difficulty of turning the cooperation it currently has into deeper integration. “Cooperation is coordination; it consists of actions aimed at achieving common objectives that do not necessarily involve giving up decision-making autonomy,” she explains. In contrast, “integration involves a greater commitment among States, with common rules, common policies, and a deeper level of cooperation.”
The expert identifies several factors that hinder progress toward effective integration, including diverse national interests, political cycles, changes in government, and the different international integration models adopted by States. In general terms, Bonini argues that States fail to recognize or identify the regional interest within their national interest.
It is worth noting that Latin America has had mechanisms such as Mercosur, the Andean Community, and the Pacific Alliance for decades, but these have made only limited contributions to the regional integration process. “In my view, the major shortcomings these blocs have in the region are that they were conceived from the top down, and by this I mean from the ideological, political, and bureaucratic perspective. So perhaps success would mean thinking about it in the opposite way, from the bottom up, building it around the need to reduce logistical costs or avoid being excluded from the global economy,” Bonini states.
Achieving broader integration would also allow Latin America to strengthen its position in the international arena, particularly amid growing geopolitical competition between global actors such as the United States and China. According to Bonini, when countries in the region act individually and there is no joint action, they lose their collective bargaining power. “The fragmentation of international relations can deepen differences among Latin American countries and limit opportunities to act as a region,” she notes.

A Minimum Regional Agenda to Move Forward

In the report, ECLAC argues that Latin America and the Caribbean should move beyond the expectation of reaching full political consensus and advance through flexible coalitions of countries interested in concrete agreements in specific areas. This is an idea with which the specialist agrees, arguing that the region should pursue a Minimum Regional Agenda (MRA) that brings together shared strategic interests while remaining sustainable over time, even beyond changes in government. This, of course, requires continuity, decades of commitment, long-term agreements, and moving beyond ideological differences.
Bonini proposes an MRA without supranational bureaucracy, but supported by technical agencies, initially focusing on three or four “points of no return,” such as security, climate change, infrastructure, and science and technology. These areas would allow States to focus on pragmatic and concrete problems, which would need to be defined and agreed upon, and subsequently establish specific objectives and monitoring mechanisms.
According to the political scientist, this initiative requires technical groups made up of civilians, making it essential to restore citizens’ interest in political affairs. The participation of civil society, organizations, and volunteer groups is fundamental to promoting solutions that transcend changes in government and contribute to the continuity of regional integration processes, the expert emphasizes.
On the other hand, Bonini argues that the possibilities for regional cooperation and integration should not be defined around a specific sector, but rather around the problems that Latin American countries cannot solve on their own. In this regard, she argues that when there is a shared need, there is also an opportunity to obtain benefits through collective action, whether by reducing costs or increasing the capacity to respond to common challenges.

Sources:
● Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). (2026, August 4). Ruptures and opportunities: proposals for Latin America and the Caribbean to prosper in the new geopolitical era. United Nations. https://www.cepal.org/es/publicaciones/90219-rupturas-oportunidades-propuestas-que-america-latina-caribe-prospere-la-nueva

● Salazar-Xirinachs, J. M. (2026, 4 de agosto). Rethinking development in the new era of geopolitical rivalry. EL PAÍS. https://elpais.com/chile/2026-08-04/repensar-el-desarrollo-en-la-nueva-era-de-rivalidad-geopolitica.html