Union of South American Nations in Mitad del Mundo, Ecuador, where the cornerstone was laid for the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Union. In April 2018, six countries suspended membership: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay and Peru. In August 2018, Colombia announced its withdrawal from the organization. At the Third South American Summit on 8 December 2004, presidents or representatives from 12 South American nations signed the "Cusco Declaration", a two-page statement of intent announcing the foundation of the South American Community. Panama and Mexico attended the signing ceremony as observers in Brazil. The mechanics of the new entity came out of the
Union of South American Nations the EU should be possible within the next fifteen years. On 28 December 2005, Chilean former foreign minister Ignacio Walker proposed that the Union's former designation, the South American Community of Nations, abbreviated as CSN, be changed to "South American Union"; nevertheless, many members responded that that proposal had already been rejected to prevent confusion since its acronym of U.S.A. (Spanish: "Unión Sudamericana") would be easily confused for the United States of America. In the press, the phrase "United States of South America" was bandied about as an analogy to the United States to reflect the economic and political power