Last year, Enrique Iglesias, secretary general of the Ibero-American Summit, called for reform of the process launched in 1991 in Guadalajara, Mexico. He urged “modernization” that matches priorities of the meetings with the real problems facing the countries that make up the “Iberoamerican family.”

Yet, the 23rd summit held in Panama on October 18 (and Iglesias’s last as secretary general) made it clear that the “family” was becoming less and less unified and committed to a common purpose. Although previous summits did not yield many concrete results, at least most heads of head showed up, and often displayed some enthusiasm.

In fact, newspaper headlines highlighted the embarrassing participation in the summit. Only half of the Latin American heads of state were there. Among those missing were leaders from most of the more powerful countries in South America, including Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, Chile’s Sebastian Pinera, and Argentina’s Cristina Kirchner. Also absent for the first time was Spain’s King Juan Carlos, who was still recovering from hip surgery.

Even Cuba’s Raul Castro did not attend. When the Summit began it was as one of the few forums that incorporated Cuba, isolated by the US embargo, into the regional “family.” Today, however, Cuba not only regularly participates in other regional meetings, but actually presides over the recently formed Community of Latin American and Caribbean Nations or CELAC.

Part of the problem is that the proliferation of new regional groupings and summit meetings – not only of CELAC but also UNASUR, ALBA, and others – has produced an understandable fatigue. Many leaders, focused on pragmatic considerations and maintaining political support at home, see little benefit in attending so many summits.

The accelerated pace of globalization has complicated the summit process. With Latin America’s greater autonomy and confidence on the global stage – and Spain and Portugal’s profound economic problems – the original idea behind the Ibero-American summit has been exhausted.

Colombian foreign minister Maria Angela Holguin remarked that just as Spain had lent a hand to Latin America two decades ago when it was emerging from an economic crisis, the region is prepared to do the same today. But the rebalancing and redefinition in the relationship between the now struggling European nations and their former colonies has not been easy.

Even within Latin America – and despite the expansion of regional organizations – countries are increasingly moving in different directions and going their separate ways. The challenge is not just in finding common ground between Latin America, Spain and Portugal, but in forging shared agendas within a fragmented region.

Of course, perhaps the biggest shift in recent years has been the growing role and presence in Latin America of Asia, particularly China — not part of the Ibero-American “family.” It is striking that one of the more productive results of the Panama summit was a meeting of the presidents of the Pacific Alliance, a bloc oriented towards trade with Asian markets.

The Ibero-American Summit will continue, but with some changes. After 2014, for example, meetings will be held every two years instead of annually. It remains to be seen, however, whether the necessary renovation will be possible.