The Florida-Colombia Chapter was born in 1963 as the “Florida-Colombia Alliance”, but was shortly thereafter absorbed into Partners of the Americas when POA was created in 1984. Thus the Florida-Colombia Chapter enjoys the status of being the most senior of the Chapters in the Partners of the Americas family. It started as the result of a goodwill meeting between the Florida Secretary of State and the President of Colombia, an initiative sponsored by the Organization of American States with the purpose of stimulating economic assistance and social and cultural understanding. Over the years, the “headquarters” of the Chapter has been located at Stetson University in DeLand, where most regular meetings are held.
From the beginning, this people-to-people endeavor has sustained a key relationship with a counterpart Chapter, the Colombia/ Florida Chapter for Central and Eastern Colombia in Bogota. A few years ago, a parallel relationship was established with a new Chapter created in Barranquilla at the university of UNINORTE.