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Georgetown Americas Institute

August 21, 2026

GEO-LAC: A New Stage of Latin American Integration—Assessment, Challenges, and Unfinished Agendas

Event Series: GEO-LAC: Latin America in the New Geoeconomic Order

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With growing geopolitical tensions, shifting alliances, technological disruptions, and rising protectionism, understanding the emerging geoeconomic order is critical for Latin America and the Caribbean. The Georgetown Americas Institute (GAI) is proud to host GEO-LAC: Latin America in the New Geoeconomic Order, a dialogue series exploring the evolving landscape of global trade, investment, supply chains, and economic alliances, placing Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) at the center of the conversation. 

After six years at the helm of the ALADI General Secretariat (2020 to 2026)—one of Latin America's leading economic integration institutions—Sergio Abreu will discuss the present and future of regional integration at GEO-LAC.

Latin America possesses an extensive architecture of integration agreements and institutions, yet it continues to face significant challenges in translating them into increased intraregional trade, greater regulatory convergence, improved infrastructure, and concrete opportunities for businesses and citizens.

Drawing on his experience at the helm of ALADI, Abreu will take stock of the progress achieved during his tenure and the agenda that remains outstanding. Between 2020 and 2026, the institution placed special emphasis on three key areas—intraregional trade promotion, regulatory convergence, and infrastructure and logistics—complemented by an agenda focused on trade facilitation, digital transformation, training, and support for micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

The conversation will also look forward: what type of integration does Latin America need in an international landscape marked by greater geoeconomic fragmentation? How can the shift be made from primarily institutional integration to a more practical form of integration—one that reduces costs and generates new productive opportunities?

This session will be pre-recorded on Zoom and released on Friday, August 21, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. ET. 

Featuring

Sergio Abreu has served as secretary general of the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI) since 2020. He possesses an extensive background in foreign policy, trade, and regional integration. He has served as Uruguay’s minister of foreign affairs; minister of industry, energy and mining; and senator; and he played a direct role in key trade negotiation and integration processes for both Uruguay and the region. During his two terms leading the ALADI General Secretariat, Abreu drove a results-oriented agenda emphasizing intraregional trade, regulatory convergence, infrastructure and logistics, digital transformation, trade facilitation, capacity building, and the inclusion of MSMEs.

Nicolás Albertoni is a visiting fellow at the Georgetown Americas Institute, where he is organizing a series of events on trade for the Latin America and the Global Economy (LAGE)  program. He previously served as vice minister of foreign affairs of Uruguay (2022-2025). He has authored several articles and books on Latin American development and integration, including Trade Protectionism in an Uncertain and Interconnected Global Economy (Routledge, 2024). Albertoni has two Ph.D.s and three master’s degrees (one from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service) in the areas of political science, economics, and international relations. He is also an alumnus of the Global Competitiveness Leadership Program (GCL, 2012) at Georgetown University. In 2021, he received the Order of Arete from the University of Southern California, the highest honor accorded for an academic contribution. In 2023, he was recognized by the Club of Madrid as one of the 30 decision-makers and leaders around the world, and in 2018, he was included in the list of Global Americans New Generation of Public Intellectuals.

Antoni Estevadeordal is a resident fellow at the Georgetown Americas Institute, where he leads the project Latin America in the Global Economy, and senior research fellow at the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI). He previously held senior roles at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), including IDB representative in Europe, head of the IDB Migration Initiative, and manager of the Integration and Trade Sector. His expertise spans international development, trade and investment policy, and regional integration. He has published extensively in major journals and authored several books. He served as a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Council on the Future of Logistics, and has also taught at leading universities in Spain, the United States, and China. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from Harvard University and a B.A. in economics from the University of Barcelona.