United States presidential visits to South America

Eleven United States presidents and one president-elect have made presidential visits to South America. The first trip was made by Herbert Hoover (as president-elect) in 1928. During this tour he delivered twenty-five speeches in ten Central and South American countries, almost all of which stressed his plans to reduce American political and military interference in Latin American affairs. In sum, he pledged that the United States would act as a "good neighbor."^[1]^[2]

The first official visits by a sitting president were those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and were an offshoot of Allied diplomatic interactions during World War II. Of the 12 independent countries on the continent, all but Bolivia, Guyana and Paraguay have been visited by an American president. Ecuador has only been visited by a president elect.

Table of visits

President	Dates	Countries	Locations	Key details
Herbert Hoover^[3]	December 1, 1928	Ecuador	Guayaquil	Met with President Isidro Ayora.^[4]
	December 5, 1928	Peru	Lima	Met with President Augusto B. Leguía.^[4]
	December 8–11, 1928	Chile	Antofagasta, Santiago	Met with President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo. Met with Bolivian diplomats to discuss the ongoing Tacna–Arica dispute.^[4]^[5]
	December 13–15, 1928	Argentina	Buenos Aires	Met with President Hipólito Yrigoyen.^[6] Also reported to (U.S.) President Calvin Coolidge on the success of his tour via telegraph.^[7]
	December 16–18, 1928	Uruguay	Montevideo	Met with President Juan Campisteguy, and addressed the National Council of Administration.^[4]
	December 21–23, 1928	Brazil	Rio de Janeiro	Met with President Washington Luís; addressed the National Congress and the Supreme Federal Court.^[8]
Franklin D. Roosevelt^[9]	July 10, 1934	Colombia	Cartagena	Informal visit en route to vacation in Hawaii.
	November 27, 1936	Brazil	Rio de Janeiro	Addressed the National Congress of Brazil.
	November 30 – December 2, 1936	Argentina	Buenos Aires	Attended session of Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Peace.
	December 3, 1936	Uruguay	Montevideo	Official visit. Met with President Gabriel Terra.
	January 12, 1943	Brazil	Belém	Overnight stop en route to Casablanca.
	January 28, 1943		Natal	Informal visit (following Casablanca Conference); met with President Getúlio Vargas.
Harry S. Truman^[10]	September 1–7, 1947		Rio de Janeiro	State visit; addressed Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Continental Peace and Security and the Brazilian Congress.
Dwight D. Eisenhower^[11]	February 23–26, 1960		Brasília Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo	Met with President Juscelino Kubitschek and addressed Brazilian Congress.
	February 26–29, 1960	Argentina	Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata, San Carlos de Bariloche	Met with President Arturo Frondizi.
	February 29 – March 2, 1960	Chile	Santiago	Met with President Jorge Alessandri.
	March 2–3, 1960	Uruguay	Montevideo	Met with President Benito Nardone.
John F. Kennedy^[12]	December 16–17, 1961	Venezuela	Caracas	Met with President Rómulo Betancourt.
John F. Kennedy^[12]	December 17, 1961	Colombia	Bogota	Met with President Alberto Lleras Camargo.
Lyndon B. Johnson^[13]	April 11–14, 1967	Uruguay	Punta del Este	Summit Meeting with Latin American Heads of State.
Lyndon B. Johnson^[13]	April 14, 1967	Suriname	Paramaribo	Refuelling stop en route from Uruguay.
Jimmy Carter^[14]	March 28–29, 1978	Venezuela	Caracas	Met with President Carlos Andrés Pérez. Addressed Congress and signed maritime boundary agreement.
Jimmy Carter^[14]	March 29–31, 1978	Brazil	Brasília, Rio de Janeiro	Official visit; met with President Ernesto Geisel and addressed Brazilian Congress.
Ronald Reagan^[15]	November 30 – December 3, 1982	Brazil	Brasilia, São Paulo	Official working visit; met with President João Figueiredo.
Ronald Reagan^[15]	December 3, 1982	Colombia	Bogota	Official Working Visit. Met with President Belisario Betancur.
George H. W. Bush^[16]	February 15, 1990	Colombia	Cartagena	Attended Summit Meeting on the control of illicit drug trafficking with President Virgilio Barco Vargas, Bolivian President Jaime Paz Zamora and Peruvian President Alan García.
	December 3–4, 1990	Brazil	Brasilia	Met with President Fernando Collor de Mello and addressed a Joint Session of the Brazilian Congress.
	December 4–5, 1990	Uruguay	Montevideo	Met with President Luis Alberto Lacalle. Addressed a Joint Session of the Uruguayan Congress.
	December 5–6, 1990	Argentina	Buenos Aires	Met with President Carlos Menem and addressed a Joint Session of the Argentine National Congress.
	December 6–7, 1990	Chile	Santiago	Met with President Patricio Aylwin and addressed a Joint Session of the Chilean National Congress.
	December 7–8, 1990	Venezuela	Caracas	Met with President Carlos Andrés Pérez.
	June 12–13, 1992	Brazil	Rio de Janeiro	Attended the Earth Summit meeting.
Bill Clinton^[17]	October 12–13, 1997	Venezuela	Caracas	Met with President Rafael Caldera.
	October 13–15, 1997	Brazil	Brasilia, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro	Met with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso; delivered several public addresses
	October 15–18, 1997	Argentina	Buenos Aires, Bariloche	Met with President Menem; delivered several public addresses.
	April 16–19, 1998	Chile	Santiago	State visit. Attended the 2nd Summit of the Americas.
	August 30, 1998	Colombia	Cartagena	Met with President Andrés Pastrana Arango.
George W. Bush^[18]	March 23–24, 2002	Peru	Lima	Met with the Presidents of Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia, and with the Vice President of Ecuador.
	November 19–22, 2004	Chile	Santiago	Attended 16th APEC Summit.
	November 22, 2004	Colombia	Cartagena	Met with President Álvaro Uribe.
	November 3–5, 2005	Argentina	Mar del Plata	Attended 4th Summit of the Americas.
	November 5–6, 2005	Brazil	Brasilia	Met with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
	March 8–9, 2007	Brazil	São Paulo	Met with President Lula da Silva.
	March 9–11, 2007	Uruguay	Montevideo	Met with President Tabaré Vázquez.
	March 11, 2007	Colombia	Bogota	Met with President Álvaro Uribe.
	November 21–23, 2008	Peru	Lima	Attended the APEC Summit Meeting.
Barack Obama	March 19–21, 2011	Brazil	Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro	Met with President Dilma Rousseff.^[19]
	March 21–22, 2011	Chile	Santiago	Met with President Sebastián Piñera.^[19]
	April 13–15, 2012	Colombia	Cartagena	Attended the 6th Summit of the Americas.^[19] Attended a leaders' dinner at the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas prior to the meeting.^[20] Announced, along with President Juan Manuel Santos, that the United States–Colombia Free Trade Agreement would take effect May 15, 2012.^[21]
	March 23–24, 2016	Argentina	Buenos Aires, Bariloche	Official visit. Met with President Mauricio Macri. Laid a wreath at the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral.^[22]
	November 18–20, 2016	Peru	Lima	Attended the APEC Summit Meeting.
Donald Trump	November 29 – December 1, 2018	Argentina	Buenos Aires	Attended the G20 summit.
Joe Biden	November 14–17, 2024	Peru	Lima	Attended the APEC Summit Meeting.
Joe Biden	November 17–19, 2024	Brazil	Rio de Janeiro, Manaus	Attended the G20 summit. It was the first time a sitting American president had visited the Amazon^[23].

Travels of former presidents

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt, along with Cândido Rondon, explorered the 1000-mile long "River of Doubt" (later renamed Rio Roosevelt) located in a remote area of the Amazon basin in 1913–14. Sponsored in part by the American Museum of Natural History, they also collected many new animal and insect specimens.^[24]

Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter, along with Carter Center personnel, met with São Paulo Governor José Serra and former president Fernando Cardoso; received special human rights award; and met with a roundtable of preeminent business and financial leaders in São Paulo. Also met with President Lula da Silva, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, and other Brazilian leaders in Brasilia, May 3–4, 2009.^[25]

References

^ "Herbert Hoover: Foreign Affairs". millercenter.org. Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
^ Deconde, Alexander (March 1950). "Herbert Hoover's Good Will Tour". Historian. 12 (2): 167–181. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.1950.tb00106.x.
^ Travels of President Herbert C. Hoover U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-10-16 at the Wayback Machine
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Hoover, Herbert (1974). "Supplement IV – Addresses During a Trip to Central and South America". Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Herbert Hoover. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. pp. 615–642. Archived from the original on August 3, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
^ DeConde, Alexander (1951). Herbert Hoover's Latin-American Policy. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780804713436. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
^ Kinsley, Philip (December 15, 1928). "Silent Hoover Wins Argentine Man of Silence: President Irigoyen Made Friend of U. S." Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1. ProQuest 180959992. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
^ "Good Will Tour Success, Hoover Wires Coolidge: Uses Direct Cable Line from Buenos Aires". Chicago Daily Tribune. December 16, 1928. p. 3. ProQuest 180956550. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
^ Jeansonne, Glen (2012). The Life of Herbert Hoover: Fighting Quaker, 1928-1933. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 44–45. ISBN 978-1-137-34673-5. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
^ Travels of President Franklin D. Roosevelt U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-11-09 at the Wayback Machine
^ Travels of President Harry S. Truman U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-11-09 at the Wayback Machine
^ Travels of President Dwight D. Eisenhower U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-12-05 at the Wayback Machine
^ "Travels of President John F. Kennedy". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
^ Travels of President Lyndon B. Johnson U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-12-18 at the Wayback Machine
^ Travels of President Jimmy Carter U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-12-06 at the Wayback Machine
^ Travels of President Ronald Reagan U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-11-09 at the Wayback Machine
^ Travels of President George H. W. Bush U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-11-09 at the Wayback Machine
^ Travels of President Bill Clinton U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-10-16 at the Wayback Machine
^ Travels of President George W. Bush U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-10-16 at the Wayback Machine
^ ^a ^b ^c "Travels of President Barack Obama". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
^ "Barack Obama's bodyguards sent home from Colombia summit amid prostitution allegations". The Telegraph. London. April 14, 2012. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
^ Al Sema, Adriaan (April 15, 2012). "Obama, Santos confirm US-Colombia trade pact takes effect May 15". Colombia Reports. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
^ Lahrichi, Kamilla; Zoroya, Gregg (March 23, 2016). "Obama says top priority is to defeat Islamic State". USA Today. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
^ Ionova, Ana; Shear, Michael D. (2024-11-17). "Biden Visits Amazon, Vowing Help to Fight Climate Change". The New York Times.
^ Brooke, Michael (February 25, 1992). "In T. R.'s Footsteps, Scientists Embark on Amazonian Expedition". The New York Times.
^ "Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil: April 27–May 5, 2009". cartercenter.org. Atlanta, Georgia: The Carter Center.

[1] "Herbert Hoover: Foreign Affairs". millercenter.org. Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. Retrieved February 24, 2016.

[2] Deconde, Alexander (March 1950). "Herbert Hoover's Good Will Tour". Historian. 12 (2): 167–181. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.1950.tb00106.x.

[3] Travels of President Herbert C. Hoover U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-10-16 at the Wayback Machine

[HHpapers-4] Hoover, Herbert (1974). "Supplement IV – Addresses During a Trip to Central and South America". Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Herbert Hoover. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. pp. 615–642. Archived from the original on August 3, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.

[5] DeConde, Alexander (1951). Herbert Hoover's Latin-American Policy. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780804713436. Retrieved May 20, 2016.

[6] Kinsley, Philip (December 15, 1928). "Silent Hoover Wins Argentine Man of Silence: President Irigoyen Made Friend of U. S." Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1. ProQuest 180959992. Retrieved May 20, 2016.

[7] "Good Will Tour Success, Hoover Wires Coolidge: Uses Direct Cable Line from Buenos Aires". Chicago Daily Tribune. December 16, 1928. p. 3. ProQuest 180956550. Retrieved May 20, 2016.

[LifeHH-8] Jeansonne, Glen (2012). The Life of Herbert Hoover: Fighting Quaker, 1928-1933. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 44–45. ISBN 978-1-137-34673-5. Retrieved May 20, 2016.

[9] Travels of President Franklin D. Roosevelt U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-11-09 at the Wayback Machine

[10] Travels of President Harry S. Truman U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-11-09 at the Wayback Machine

[11] Travels of President Dwight D. Eisenhower U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-12-05 at the Wayback Machine

[12] "Travels of President John F. Kennedy". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.

[13] Travels of President Lyndon B. Johnson U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-12-18 at the Wayback Machine

[14] Travels of President Jimmy Carter U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-12-06 at the Wayback Machine

[15] Travels of President Ronald Reagan U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-11-09 at the Wayback Machine

[16] Travels of President George H. W. Bush U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-11-09 at the Wayback Machine

[17] Travels of President Bill Clinton U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-10-16 at the Wayback Machine

[18] Travels of President George W. Bush U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian Archived 2011-10-16 at the Wayback Machine

[BOtravels-19] "Travels of President Barack Obama". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.

[20] "Barack Obama's bodyguards sent home from Colombia summit amid prostitution allegations". The Telegraph. London. April 14, 2012. Retrieved February 25, 2016.

[21] Al Sema, Adriaan (April 15, 2012). "Obama, Santos confirm US-Colombia trade pact takes effect May 15". Colombia Reports. Retrieved February 25, 2016.

[22] Lahrichi, Kamilla; Zoroya, Gregg (March 23, 2016). "Obama says top priority is to defeat Islamic State". USA Today. Retrieved July 16, 2017.

[23] Ionova, Ana; Shear, Michael D. (2024-11-17). "Biden Visits Amazon, Vowing Help to Fight Climate Change". The New York Times.

[24] Brooke, Michael (February 25, 1992). "In T. R.'s Footsteps, Scientists Embark on Amazonian Expedition". The New York Times.

[25] "Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil: April 27–May 5, 2009". cartercenter.org. Atlanta, Georgia: The Carter Center.

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United States presidential visits to South America

Table of visits

Travels of former presidents

Theodore Roosevelt

Jimmy Carter

See also

References

Information related to United States presidential visits to South America

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