Functionalism and neofunctionalism are theoretical approaches that were developed several decades ago with a view to the integration processes in Europe and were later also applied to Latin America. Haas (1967) and Schmitter (1970a) analysed the Latin American integration processes of the 1960s from a neofunctionalist perspective (see also Haas & Schmitter, 1964); four decades later, Malamud and Schmitter (2011) did the same for the integration processes of the 1990s. Based on the European experience, they transferred neofunctionalist approaches to Latin America with the aim of looking for conditions that drive and deepen integration processes. But, above all, these past applications revealed the limits of Latin American regionalism. While spillover was the engine of European integration, Latin American Regional Organisations (ROs) did not experience a spillover of functional cooperation into new areas nor a deepening of regional integration through the creation and strengthening of supranational institutions. Instead, they have gone through seemingly endless cycles of crisis and resilience. The most recent cycle of crises began in the mid-2010s and culminated in the disintegration of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the paralysis of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), both the result of excessive political polarisation among member governments that made regional cooperation difficult.