Based on a comparative study of Brazil and Chile, exponents of the so-called Atlantic vs. Pacific, we seek to understand the factors that influenced the elaboration and promotion of different regional projects between 2006 and 2014. Using methodological instruments such as Content Analysis (CA) and Document Analysis (AD), we carried out a detailed analysis of the relevance of following variables: (a) political ideology; (b) models of democracy; (c) models of development and (d) geostrategic axes. We conclude that the impact of political ideology on the elaboration and promotion of regionalism strategies was less relevant than the other constraints. In a scenario of opportunities and restrictions imposed by strategic relations with the USA and China, the models of democracy and, especially, the models of development were the most expressive conditions in the external policies for regionalism undertaken by Brazil and Chile between 2006 and 2014. Therefore, Latin American regionalism is best defined as determined by axes of regionalism with singularities that go beyond a logic based on the left and right dichotomy.