Organization of Ibero-American States - History

History

The OEI was founded in 1949 under the title of the Office of Latin American Education and with the character of an international agency, as a result of the 1st Latin American Education Congress in Madrid. In 1954, the 2nd Latin American Congress of Education took place in Quito, and it was decided to transform the OEI into an intergovernmental organization, integrated by sovereign States, and it was so constituted on the 15 of March 1957 at the 3rd Latin American Congress of Education celebrated in Santo Domingo; they subscribed the first Statutes of the OEI, effective until 1985.

In 1979 the Congress met for the 4th Latin American of Education in Madrid; in 1983 the 5th took place in Lima, and in May 1985 it held an Extraordinary Meeting of the Congress in Bogotá, in that it was decided to change the old name of the OEI to the present one, keeping the abbreviations and extending its objectives. This modification affected only the name of its organ of Government, the Latin American Congress of Education, became the General Assembly. In December 1985, during the Meeting of the Directive Council in Panama, its members acted as plenipotentiaries of their respective States and in plenary sessions, powers of the General Assembly, subscribed the present Statutes of the OEI, which replaced the statutory text of 1957 and they approved the Organization Regulations.

Since the I Latin American Conference of Government and Chiefs of State (Guadalajara, 1991), the OEI has promoted the Conferences of Ministers of Education, as instances of preparation for the summits, and for the execution of the educative, scientific and cultural programs delegated to it.