Ibero-America is a term used since the second half of the 19th century to refer collectively to the countries in the Americas that were formerly colonies of Spain or Portugal. Spain and Portugal are themselves included in some definitions, such as that of the Ibero-American Summit and the Organization of Ibero-American States. The Organization of Ibero-American States also includes Equatorial Guinea, in Central Africa,[1][2] but not the other Portuguese-speaking African countries.
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The prefix Ibero- refers to the Iberian peninsula in Europe, consisting of Spain, Portugal, Andorra, and Gibraltar. Ibero-America is formed by all Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas, in addition to Brazil, which is Portuguese-speaking, but excludes the French-speaking country of Haiti, the French overseas departments of French Guiana, Martinique and Guadeloupe, and the French collectivities of Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy. The exclusion of the French-speaking regions differentiates Ibero-America from Latin America, as well as the inclusion of the European states of the Iberian peninsula if they are included in the definition. The English-speaking countries Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados, Antigua, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada, and Dutch-speaking Suriname are also excluded from Ibero-America. British overseas territories (Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos Islands) as well as Dutch possessions (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Maarten, and Sint Eustatius) in the Caribbean are also excluded from the Ibero-American region.
Since 1991, the Iberoamerican Community of Nations has organized yearly summits, attended by the heads of state and government of the Ibero-American countries, including Spain, Portugal and Andorra.[3][4]