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NUESTRA AMÉRICA: A UNITED STAND AGAINST COERCION  
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January 27, 2026
European Left
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_ San Carlos Declaration commits progressive forces across the
Americas to collective action. _

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AT THE END OF JANUARY, BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA, BECAME THE MEETING POINT FOR
A RENEWED HEMISPHERIC PROJECT. NINETY DELEGATES FROM TWENTY COUNTRIES
GATHERED FOR THE EMERGENCY CONVENING _NUESTRA AMÉRICA_, INITIATED BY
PROGRESSIVE INTERNATIONAL, AND ADOPTED THE SAN CARLOS DECLARATION, A
COLLECTIVE PLEDGE TO COORDINATED ACTION AGAINST COERCION IN THE
AMERICAS.

The conference was inaugurated by Colombia’s Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio, alongside David Adler, Co-General
Coordinator of Progressive International. Their opening remarks framed
the gathering as both an urgent response to present dangers and a
forward-looking effort to defend sovereignty, democracy, and peace
across the hemisphere.

The meeting unfolded under the banner of collective resistance by
progressive forces in Latin America — governments, political
parties, trade unions, and social movements — against coercive
measures imposed by the Trump administration in pursuit of hegemonic
control over the Western Hemisphere. These measures, delegates argued,
have targeted governments of independent states and undermined
international law and democratic self-determination.

Participants from the United States included Bill de Blasio, former
Mayor of New York City; Roxanna Valenzuela, Mayor of Tucson, Arizona;
and a delegation from the Democratic Socialists of America. Europe was
represented by Clémence Guetté, Vice President of the French
National Assembly; Spanish deputy Gerardo Pisarello; UK Member of
Parliament Zarah Sultana; and Walter Baier, President of the Party of
the European Left. At a crucial moment of escalating global
geopolitical tensions, the gathering in Bogotá highlighted the
growing importance of international cooperation among progressive
forces. In this context, the active participation of the European Left
underlined the political weight of the initiative. Below, we publish
the full speech delivered by Walter Baier during the _Nuestra
América_ convening.

Over two days of closed deliberations and public assemblies,
ministers, parliamentarians, diplomats, trade unionists, and movement
leaders from across the Americas — joined by allies from beyond the
region — forged a shared diagnosis of the current crisis and
outlined a common strategy to confront it. The San Carlos Declaration
affirms a central principle: the future of the Americas must be
decided by its peoples — and defended together.

 

 

A delegation of representatives was also received by President Gustavo
Petro, who arrived in Washington on 3 February for negotiations with
U.S. President Trump.

THE DECLARATION ADOPTED BY _NUESTRA AMÉRICA_ CONCLUDES WITH A CLEAR
COMMITMENT TO ACTION. TO STRENGTHEN _NUESTRA AMÉRICA_ PARTICIPANTS
PLEDGED TO:

* Sustain a living process of coordination among governments,
movements, political forces, trade unions, and peoples, deepening
dialogue through convenings, shared initiatives, and permanent
channels of cooperation, with the aim of advancing toward a
citizenship of the Americas grounded in guaranteed rights.
* Expand alliances with international resistance movements and
foster dialogue with peoples of the Global North, challenging
complicity with aggression, opposing profiteering from coercion and
war, and promoting adherence to international law and peaceful
coexistence.
* Convene the next _Nuestra América_ in Havana, Cuba, calling on
peoples around the world to stand in solidarity with the Cuban people
and their enduring struggle to defend sovereignty and
self-determination against U.S. designs and threats.

The full text of the San Carlos Declaration and the complete list of
participants are available on the Progressive International website:

THE SAN CARLOS DECLARATION
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| PROGRESSIVE INTERNATIONAL
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PRESIDENT OF THE PARTY OF THE EUROPEAN LEFT PARTY PRESIDENT WALTER
BAIER REMARKS:

_DEAR COMRADES,_

_This is one of the most important international meetings I have
attended in recent years. I want to thank the Progressive
International for taking the initiative to bring us together at this
decisive moment. The moment is dramatic. More than ten years ago, the
late Pope Francis warned of a state of the world that he described as
a “world war fought in installments.”_

 

_Donald Trump’s assault on Venezuela and the abduction of President
Nicolás Maduro are not isolated events. They are part of a chain of
ruthless contempt—for the right of peoples to self-determination and
for international law itself._

 

_Colombia is in the crosshairs. Mexico. Brazil. Above all, Cuba—an
island that has been a thorn in the side of the empire for decades.
What is new is not the aggression. Aggression has always been a
characteristic of U.S. foreign policy. What is new is its openness.
Trump does not even bother to disguise imperial violence with the
rhetoric of human rights and democracy, as his predecessors did._

 

_War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. This is not
literature from the twentieth century. This is the imperialism of the
twenty-first century._

 

_The so-called Peace Council with Netanyahu, Erdoğan, and Milei,
which aims to undermine and ultimately destroy the United Nations, is
just another example. And we understand clearly: the attack on
Venezuela is not only an attack on Venezuela._

 

_Many people make fun of Donald Trump—his ignorance, his narcissism,
his vulgarity. But we must not underestimate the danger. The new
aggressiveness of the empire cannot be explained by the pathological
character of one man alone. We are at a turning point in imperialist
strategy. One aspect of this shift is the defensive position in which
U.S. imperialism finds itself—economically and geopolitically. And
like all empires in decline, it seeks a way out through violence. But
the empire has also changed from within._

 

_The billionaires of the digital economy—the owners of Nvidia,
Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Tesla—have multiplied
their fortunes in recent years. By their very nature, these forms of
capital strive for expansion, control over technologies, resources,
and sea routes. Ultimately, this means a drive for global
domination—no less than Trump himself._

 

_This means that the aggressive turn in U.S. politics is not a
temporary phenomenon. If it is not defeated it is here to stay._

 

_Latin America is today at the center of confrontation,_

_Latin America is today at the center of confrontation, as its peoples
resist the new Monroe Doctrine in the most organized, politicized, and
articulate_d way.

 

_But the battlefield is global. Gaza. Iran. Sudan. Yemen. The
Democratic Republic of the Congo. Syria. All of these aggressions were
quietly accepted by European leaders. But Europe, too, is now in the
firing line._

 

_That is why the shock among European leaders over Trump’s move on
Greenland was so great. It exposed the deep crisis of Europe. First, a
security crisis—because European security policy rests on NATO and
on the presence of U.S. nuclear weapons. Second, an economic
crisis—as Europe’s dependence on U.S. liquefied natural gas,
digital technologies, and financial services suddenly became apparent.
And third, a political crisis—because Trump’s attempt to weaken
and divide the European Union relies on the radical right, which is
advancing across the continent: part of governing coalitions in one
third of EU member states and leading governments in five._

 

_The rise of the radical right did not come out of nowhere. Decades of
austerity policies have hollowed out welfare states and undermined
people’s trust in political institutions. This is the political
challenge we face._

 

_In April, the Party of the European Left will hold its eighth
Congress. And we want to rise to the challenge. We will place the
struggle for peace and for self-determination at the very center of
our work. We understand the global character of the attack on peace
and on the sovereignty of peoples. And therefore, the response of the
Left must be global as well._

 

_It is now clear that Trump’s aggressive turn has once more
increased the threat of a world war. The struggle for peace, against
colonialism, and against the radical right therefore forms a single
struggle. These fights are inseparably linked._

 

_We want to send two clear messages: 1. Struggle can be won. Times of
upheaval are also times of possibility. The great social struggles of
the working class—in France, in Greece, in Portugal, in
Belgium—prove this. 2. The condition for victory is unity. We must
not lose ourselves in petty political games._

Too much is at stake. We need the international unity of left and
socialist forces, of trade unions and social movements. That is why we
are here. And that is what the Party of the European Left is committed
to help building—actively, decisively, and in solidarity.

_THANK YOU._

* Progressive International
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* Latin America
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* Colombia
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* Cuba
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* Venezuela
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* anti-imperialism
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* Party of the European Left
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