At least 25 Latin American and Caribbean presidents will start arriving in Mexico on Sunday to discuss the creation of a new organisation to address the region's most pressing concerns.

The Mexican-led initiative, a clear sign of Latin America's growing confidence as a region, will exclude both the US and Canada. Some observers believe it could even eventually rival the 35-member Organisation of American States (OAS), which includes the US and Canada and has been the principal forum for hemispheric issues during the past half century.

In an interview with the FT, Salvador Beltrán del Río, Mexico's under-secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, said the idea was to forge a body to replace and significantly expand the so-called “Rio Group”, originally formed in 1986.