The Nuestra America Conference, Bogotá, 2026 - and why Latin American sovereignty affects us all

2026 began with Venezuela’s president and wife were arrested in the middle of the night and imprisoned in New York. Before that, US bombs had targeted civilian shipping crafts. Right now, the Trump administration is still considering naval blockades in order to halt imports at the intended detriment to the already struggling Cuban economy. As I write this, Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro has recently returned from a meeting in the U.S with Donald Trump. 

[https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=822211454204514]

In response, global socialist coalition Progressive International (‘La Internacional Progresista’) called an emergency conference in Colombia’s capital city Bogota. Its name, Nuestra America, plucked from the pages of Cuban writer Jose Martí’s essay of the same name, thanks to its relevance in today’s political climate. 

Martí’s essay endorses the union of ‘the pueblos’ (both the towns, and the people) in the face of the threat of American Imperialism. It was written and published almost a century and a half ago. 

[https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=822211454204514]

The conference is held in Bogota’s Candelaria district, in the historical Teatro Colon. In this same building, 10 years earlier, the Colombian government and FARC Guerrilla forces signed the Peace Treaty (‘Al Acuerdo Final de Paz’) which led to the melting down of many of the arms used throughout the conflict. 

Just a few blocks away, those interested can visit the museum Fragmentos, Espacio de Arte y Memoria. In this space, the labours of many women abused during the conflict have transformed weapons of destruction into a piece of art designed by artist Doris Salcedo and architect Carlos Granada. 

[https://youtu.be/5YkWc-nm2-E]

Progressive International, founded recently in 2020, is an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, feminist, not for or by profit coalition which believes in political mobilisation through solidarity. 

Implementing socialist values outlined in their inaugural declaration, PI represents solidarity against ‘the diversity of struggle in the world’ through collective action which involves ‘joining forces across borders in a common defense of people and planet.’ In light of Martí’s 1891 essay, it thus becomes impossible to separate the revolutionary activism of this coalition from Martí’s call for the seed of a new, unified America. 

The pragmatic application of the abstract concept of Nuestra America sprouts not from the ideas of sheltered intellectuals, but from the notion that in order to lead the people, ‘el espíritu del gobierno ha de ser el del país.’ (the spirit of the government must reflect that of the country). 

And nowhere is the spirit of the future Colombian government more present on this night than in the Teatro Colon. 

The conference has been primarily organised, and is subsequently hosted by, David Adler, the Californian born co-founder of Progressive International. 

Adler is a political scientist, economist, self-defined radical sceptic, and proponent of Latin American sovereignty as firm as he is an opponent of the international rise of the far right. In an interview with El Pais published a few days after the conference, he described the unlawful advances of the US administration into countries like Venezuela, Cuba, and now Ecuador, as ‘las maniobras absurdas peligrosamente imperialistas de este gobierno’ (‘absurd, dangerously imperialist manouveurs’).

Adler begins the evening’s proceedings by thanking everyone who made the conference possible. His attempt to win the crowd over with a low “boo” for Donald Trump is not wholly unsuccessful. 

Once he’s established his political position, Adler swiftly sets the tone of the next few hours. He denounces the criminal activity of the United States, calling out the explicit nature of the government's plan to ‘dominar la región (El América Sur), controlar sus recursos, y extinguir cualquier proyecto político que se niegue a someterse.’ (‘dominate the region, control their resources, and extinguish any political project that refuses to submit’.) 

[https://youtu.be/MomkI4bS7Kg?si=OkEPk1aRKwbjm1GO]

The first speaker of the evening is Saia Vergara, the deputy minister of heritage, memory, and cultural governance, and multimedia artist. Her speech is interrupted briefly by shouts from the crowd. Audience members call for the liberation of Nicolas Maduro, the kidnapped president of Venezuela earlier this year, and of Jorge Glas, the ex vice-president of Ecuador. Last year, already imprisoned Glas was condemned to 13 years of further imprisonment for corruption. 

Vergara smiles, even whilst people from the other side of the theatre call out Maduro as a ‘dictador’. She recalls El Acuerdo Final between the Colombian government and FARC, and acknowledges the history of violence that accompanies Colombia’s rich, vibrant culture. It is a culture which, she optimistically suggests, ought to be ‘el nucleo de los politicos publicos’ in order to ‘avanzar la democratica, y defender la soberania’. (‘the nucleus of public politics in order to advance democracy and defend (its) sovereignty’). 

Next, Adler introduces the first panel of the evening. The first to speak is the ex-minster of the environment and sustainable development in Colombia, and presidential candidate of Petro’s party, Colombia Humana, Susanna Muhammad. She speaks seated, knowing that she need not stand up in order for her words to achieve their desired impact. 

Muhammad labels the US government as ‘piratas’ (pirates) in their concerted attempts to invade and recolonise South America. She insists that ‘la respeuesta’, (our answer,’) cannot be to remain silent. The answer cannot be fear’, because the people of Latin America have a story, a culture. Latin Americans are more than just resources to be used by the overflowing system of abundant capitalism, and their countries are more than just the backyards of the United States. 

In keeping with her previous position, Muhammad uses her time to go beyond the threat of American Imperialism alone. She argues that the answer to capitalism lives in the biodiversity of Latin America.  

Muhammad posits that now is not just the time to oppose Trump’s regime - in fact his name doesn’t even cross her lips. The moment has arrived to renew the life systems on this planet, and raise our heads against these arms which point in our direction in the face of this threat which is not just military, but also environmental and economic. It is against the human dignity of Nuestra America. 

After Muhammad the microphone is handed to Bill de Blasio, Former New York Mayor, and idol of socialist Zohran Mamdani. De Blasio justifies people’s fear that Donald Trump does not honour democratic values. Yet nor does he have, he stresses, unwavering support from US citizens. 

The examples he gives to demonstrate this also prove what de Blasio says next, that Trump is literally creating violence against his own citizens. This is perhaps most notable with the deployment of violent ICE agents who are attacking, killing, and facilitating the deportation of ordinary people. In response, de Blasio reports to us, the opposition is growing. 

Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry and left-wing pro-Palestine political activist is up next. She is the woman who has spoken out and supported hunger strikers against the genocide in Gaza. She has called for the abolition of the British monarchy after files were released incriminating Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor for his involvement in the sexual abuse of young girls. In  relation to Nuestra America, she confronted the UK foreign secretary about the double standards surrounding the UK’s reaction to the “illegal abduction of Maduro.” 

Sultana launches, almost immediately, into a damnation of the UK government’s failure to support the sovereignty of Latin America in the face of Trump’s Imperialist advances. Her message is clear (and not just because it's one of the only ones we hear in English): ‘What happens in this hemisphere never stays just here.’

Sultana invokes not just Jose Marti, after whom the conference is named, but also Simon Bolivar, Colombian’s Venezuelan liberator from the Spanish Empire to reinvigorate the socialist, resistant forces of Latin America throughout history. 

‘Shame on the UK Parliament, and shame on Kier Starmer.’ Sultana proclaims. She goes on, characteristically, to outline the UK’s deep ‘complicity in the genocide taking place in Gaza, ‘from weapon sales, intelligence cooperation, political cover’, all of which emphasise the UK government’s complete disregard for international law. 

‘What happens in Colombia, matters in the UK. What happens in Venezuela,  matters in Palestine. What happens here, shapes people everywhere.’ 

Following Sultana is the formidable lawyer, politician, and Colombian Deputy Minister of Rural Development Martha Carvajalino. 

She recalls the words of Gustavo Petro, who said that ‘Gaza was only the beginning of the bets placed on the world’s sovereignty through violence, and war’. 

Carvajalino calls not just for an opposition to American Imperialism, but for a movement to protect the land itself, ‘la tierra, los bosques, la agua, y las amazonas’ (‘the land, the forest, the water, and the Amazon’) upon which this violence is enacted. 

She urges the development of a new economic model, one which moves away from fossil capital and instead prioritises the lives of the people who, for centuries, have protected the biodiversity and the earth that is currently under threat.  

This is quite literally, she emphasises, a life or death situation; we must oppose the bombing and destruction of 'our land’ - as we’ve seen through the ecocide in Gaza. We must do this, not only to ensure the sovereignty of Nuestra America but to ensure, also, that ‘los pueblos’ (‘the people’) can work the earth, eat from the earth, and above all survive as one with our earth. Our land is not just here to be subjected to fracking for the capitalist fossil economy. 

The microphone is then passed to Spanish-Argentinian Gerardo Pisarello, republican deputy and representative of social-democratic party Catalunya en Comu. 

Pisarello names not just the leftist candidates assassinated by the Castaño brothers in the 1980s, but also Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo in Argentina (the mothers campaigning for their disappeared sons). He names indigenous men and women like Bartolina Sisa and Tupac Amaru who fought against Spanish colonial oppression in Peru, as well as figures like French-Chilean artist Ana Tijoux, Frida Kahlo, and Rosa Luxembourg. 

As he gains traction, denouncing not just the complicity of the western hemisphere in the genocide in Gaza, but of our complicity in the starvation and deprivation of African Children, it appears that this man will leave no stone unturned. 

Although tonight Pisarello’s campaign may sit beneath the title of Nuestra America, as he calls upon the importance of feminism, syndicalism, anti-fascism, anti-racism, and socialism, he adds his own name to the list of revolutionaries without whom the sustained fight against an oppressive, imperialist regime might not have been so successful. 

We have beaten these giants performing in a puppet show before, he reminds us; now, we have another opportunity to defend Nuestra America. There is no doubt that we can do it again. 

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=177-s44MSVQ]

Pisarello is followed by Thiago Avila, a Brazilian humanitarian activist whose keffiya reminds us of the lengths he is willing to go to in order to break the Israeli siege of Gaza and create a people’s humanitarian sea corridor; he recently participated, along with Adler,  in the Flotilla mission to deliver aid to Palestinian’s in the occupied West Bank. 

Avila begins by reflecting on the growth of Colombia since 9 Abril 2005, a little over half a century after the assassination of education minister Jorge Eliecer Gaitan led to the eruption of violent protests in the capital city, known as ‘El Bogotazo’. At this moment, he admits, Bogota was seen as the Israel of Latin America. 

But now, he clarifies, Colombia has transformed into the ‘vanguard of Latin American resistance’. 

Avila uses his turn to speak to clarify some things about the atrocities happening in Palestine. Any question of anti-semitism (a claim often unfoundedly lobbed towards pro-palestinian activists on the Left) disseminates as he makes clear that this is not a matter of religion. Rather, this is an apartheid, and an ethnic cleansing carried out by the Israeli state against the people of Palestine. 

He makes a worthy comparison, too, of the imperialists of Northern America with the Israeli Military in Palestine; both of whose actions demonstrate that they prefer to keep vigil over a world destroyed, rather than see a project of emancipation which could oppose their imperial regime. For this, Avila asserts, our project must be enacted together, in order to forge an alternative path to the one paved with violence. 

We cannot continue in a world in which children in Palestine learn to differentiate between drones and bombs, or are forced to breathe in contaminated air. Or the children in Cauca living with a constant paramilitary presence, or those in Cuba living under blockade, or those in Ecuador, living under the oppression of the United States. 

And for those questioning the purpose of the Flotillas in Palestine, Avila invokes the general strikes in Italy, the global mobilisation happening also in Colombia and other parts of Latin America, and the strategic change of Trump’s administration. This, he asserts, is a reaction to the collective activism of Progressive International. It is proof that activism and mobilisation do work.

He ends his speech, met with waves of applause, by calling for the toppling of neoliberalism, the downfall of imperialism, and an end to zionism. 

The first to speak on the final panel of the evening is Ecuadorian Andrés Auraz, the Exminister of knowledge and human talent for his country, and a firm supporter of Jorge Glas. 

Auraz reminds the audience that the US Military Forces have been deployed not because Latin America is weak, but because the US Government recognizes that Latin America has shown its force without having to deploy arms like ICE agents. Because Latin America has prioritised the lives, the health, and the education of its people. 

In his soft spoken manner, Auraz reasserts the peaceful opposition of his own country against the violence of the Trump regime only a few days before this conference. The resounding “no!” Ecuadorians gave in response to the possibility of their own violent resistance provides yet another example of the progressiveness of his nation. It serves as a reminder that it is not South America that needs the North, but rather the latter which ought to learn from the former. 

Next up is Clemence Guette, vice president of the national assembly and voice of the working classes in France. In thickly accented Spanish she expresses her honour to be here, in the first country which said “no” to Donald Trump. 

Guette vehemently condemns the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro, and decries the attempted invasion of New Zealand, Greenland, and Cuba, as well as all of the other countries targeted by the US’s wannabe-dictator. She calls out these nations’ movements of resistance and condemns her own country’s government for their delayed recognition of the state of Palestine - as well as France’s complicity in Israel’s occupation. 

Guette encourages the Left to take to the streets, to mobilise, to say no to NATO, and to bring down the far-right. 

She ends with a message of optimism, with the words of Thomason Caja: ‘cuando el pueblo se pone en pie, el imperialismo tiembla.’ (when the people stand up, imperialism trembles’). 

As if these speeches hadn’t warranted enough enthusiasm, the next speaker is met with a voracious round of applause and audience participation to which she raises her fist in solidarity. This is Maria Jose Pizarro, Republican Senate, Co-president of the Historic Pact and Head of Debate for the Petrista presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda. She is also the daughter of Carlos Pizarro, one of the Leftist candidates (and former M-19 Leader) assassinated by a paramilitary member thought to be acting on behalf of the Castano brothers in the 1980s. 

Pizarro celebrates the current Colombia, reflecting upon all that has been built so far, and emphasising the role of the people, united in the language of anti-fascism. Her request for an applause for Gustavo Petro’s government is met with a standing ovation in his honour. 

But she wastes no time in denouncing the Monroe Doctrine and the US Government. ‘The threat is not a person’ she affirms, ‘but the regime of intimidation’. She states, emphatically, that recent events clearly show that not only is the sovereignty of Latin American in danger, but that while the genocide in Palestine continues, so is the state of humanity.

‘Colombia’, asserts Pizarro, ‘will never get down and kneel before the United States. It will continue changing and growing, through the power of truth, as the vanguard of the movement against fascistic imperialism. Colombia, and its pueblos’, she tells us, ‘have woken up’. 

After the excitement for Pizarro has dissipated slightly, the final speaker and Minister of Education in Colombia, Daniel Rojas begins his speech. We saw him outside from the queue, taking photos with people who’d become his fans. Is now the time of the political celebrity, who gains a dedicated following not for their performativity but for their policy, whose life actually touches the lives of others, rather than just inspiring admiration or envy from the other side of a screen? 

Rojas brings us back down to earth from the evening’s catharsis, separating the fancifulness of the speculated plans from the definitive action that needs to, that must, take place. “Latin America doesn’t need permission to exist”.

‘Latin America needs mechanisms of cooperation and articulation to prevent the isolation and separation of countries, countries competing for crumbs, which work better together.’ 

And one of these mechanisms, he posits, using the recent bypassing of the US dollar by various African countries as an example; is the economy backed not by the US currency, but by the cultural richness of Latin America. 

https://youtu.be/uVYiMpp-UZE?si=A4M3A4QuVCgkR1c1

Rojas ends with the image of the Jaguar, the symbol of Latin America’s strength, unity, and  indigenous heritage, and in the words of Jose Marti, says: ‘Respetanos, y se les respetara, a las cero responde a la cero, y a la amistad, se le responde a la amistad, y sigue rugiendo el jaguar, y sigamos gritando la dignidad.’ (‘respect us, and we’ll respect you, nothing responds to nothing, and friendship responds to friendship. As long as the jaguar keeps roaring, we will keep screaming our dignity.’)