The Special Summit of the Americas was held on January 12 and 13, 2004 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. This summit is part of the Summit of the Americas initiative which is carried on by the Organization of American States with the purpose of bringing together the Heads of State and Government in the Hemisphere to discuss and act on political, economic and social issues concerning the Americas. The summit gathered the leaders of all the countries which are members of the OAS, except for Cuba, whose participation from OAS activities had been suspended since 1962 until 2015.