Latin America

Barcelona maintains privileged relations with Latin America

Latin America is one of the regions of the world in which the City Council of Barcelona has had more projection and has established a large number of exchanges and relations based around existing historic and cultural ties between the two communities.

The growing process of Latin American municipalities to achieve greater power has contributed to evaluating the benefits derived from the cooperation and professional exchange between cities.  Furthermore, the increase of the Latin American population in Barcelona has led to a mutual knowledge and has helped to foster these ties. 

The action of the City Council of Barcelona has materialised by means of bilateral relations, either of twinning agreement protocols or, mostly agreements of friendship and cooperation with other cities, such as those signed with Bogotá and Medellín at the end of 2021.  

Moreover, it is worth highlighting the active participation in Latin-American networks of cities, such as CIDEU and UCCI.

  • Even though the impulse of the 1992 Olympic Games was decisive for the international projection of Barcelona, many years prior to this, ties of friendship and cooperation had already been established with some Latin American cities, as was the case of Rio de Janeiro (1972) and Monterrey (1977).

    The relation with the Latin American cities has led to different projects of cooperation and exchange, and the boosting of the City Council in this field has fostered the relations of other types of organisations with interests in Latin America, such as universities, companies, chambers of Commerce, cultural associations, etc.

    Current/recent protocols of cooperation:

  • For the city councils, forming part of an association of cities has become, increasingly so, a valid and essential strategy for improving their governing and management capacity, as well as for their participation in world affairs. 

    To participate in international, regional or local organisations, like those we mentioned above, has strengthened the international projection of Barcelona.  The networks of cities also allow them to get to know and exchange experiences that can become solutions to common urban problems. 

    Nowadays, in terms of Latin America, the City Council of Barcelona is member of the following networks: