Nuestra América

Bogotá, Colombia — 90 delegates from 20 countries gathered in Bogotá for the emergency hemispheric convening Nuestra América today adopted the San Carlos Declaration, launching a new continental project to defend sovereignty, democracy, and peace in the Americas.

Over two days of closed deliberation and public assembly, ministers, parliamentarians, diplomats, trade unionists, and movement leaders from across the hemisphere and beyond forged a shared diagnosis of the present crisis and a common strategy to confront it. The Declaration affirms that the future of the Americas must be decided by its peoples — and defended together.

The text warns that a revived Monroe Doctrine and “Trump Corollary” now threaten the hemisphere through sanctions, blockades, destabilisation, and militarised coercion. It situates this danger in a longer history of struggle for self-determination, invoking the legacies of Simón Bolívar, José Martí, Benito Juárez, and José de San Martín.

Opening the conference, Colombia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio told delegates:

“Killings. Unilateral attacks. Electoral interference. Pressure on our justice systems. Territorial ambitions. For the past twelve months—and for the past two centuries—Nuestra América has been the stage for these and so many other acts of aggression.

“But we also know how to resist. We know how to organise, how to build community. And above all, we know that initiative, time, truth, and justice are on our side.”

From this diagnosis flows a concrete programme of action. Delegates commit to:

Coordinate in multilateral forums to uphold the UN Charter and resist unilateral coercion;

Build hemispheric mechanisms to confront sanctions, blockades, and economic shocks;

Advance solidarity across the region — from Cuba to Venezuela, from Mexico to Colombia and beyond — through humanitarian cooperation and the rejection of militarised solutions;

Defend the rights of Latin American migrants in the United States and oppose mass deportations;

Strengthen democratic protections, financial and trade autonomy, energy and food sovereignty, and regional integration;

Sustain Nuestra América as a living process of coordination among governments, movements, and peoples.

The San Carlos Declaration, named for the Palacio San Carlos that hosted the emergency gathering, concludes by convening the next Nuestra América in Havana, Cuba, calling on peoples around the world to stand in solidarity with the Cuban people and affirming that “the Americas will no longer be governed by fear, fragmentation, or imperial decree, but by unity, sovereignty, and peace.”

David Adler, Co-General Coordinator of the Progressive International and conference chair, said:

“What began in Bogotá as an emergency gathering has become a political subject. Nuestra América is now a project with history behind it and a future before it.

“From this very land, Simón Bolívar taught that no republic can sustain its freedom alone. Today, in the face of sanctions, blockades, militarism, and repression, the peoples of the Americas are choosing cooperation over fragmentation and sovereignty over subjugation.

“The San Carlos Declaration is not an appeal for protection. It is a declaration of intent: the peoples of the hemisphere will defend themselves — together.”

As imperial pressures on the region intensify, Nuestra América emerges not as a one-off event, but as a continental process — a common front for a hemisphere determined to govern itself and speak in its own voice in the world. Delegates discussed this process with Colombian President Gustavo Petro at a lunchtime meeting at Casa de Nariño on Saturday 24 January.

Delegates include Colombia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio, Progressive International Co-General Coordinator David Adler, Daniel Rojas, Minister of Education of Colombia; Andrés Arauz, former presidential candidate of Ecuador; Christian Duarte, Secretary of Finance of Honduras; Bill de Blasio, former Mayor of New York City; Thiago Ávila of Brazil’s Global Sumud Flotilla; Colombian Senator María José Pizarro; Clémence Guetté, Vice President of the French National Assembly; Spanish Deputy Gerardo Pisarello; Uruguayan Senator Bettiana Díaz; Cuban Ambassador Carlos de Céspedes; Walter Baier, President of the European Left Party; Mexican Deputy Andrea Navarro; Jorge Taiana, Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Argentina; Martha Carvajalino, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Colombia; Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, Co-General Coordinator of the Progressive International and Executive Secretary of The Hague Group; Susana Muhamad, former Colombian Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development; Roxanna Valenzuela, the mayor of Tucson, Arizona; Venezuelan ambassador Carlos Eduardo Martinez Mendoza, Honduran Vice Foreign Minister Gerado Torres Zelaya, International Relations Secretary for Brazil’s CUT Antonio Lisboa, among many others.