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US PROGRESSIVES TO CHALLENGE TRUMP ‘DONROE DOCTRINE’ AT
PAN-AMERICAN CONGRES  
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Brett Wilkins
August 17, 2026
Common Dreams
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_ “We need to build a durable and lasting coalition of progressives
that can take on the right-wing forces and answer them with the
necessary call of the people,” said Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. _


A protester holds a sign denouncing US aggression against Venezuela
during a March 14, 2026 demonstration in Madrid., Olmo Blanco/Getty
Images

 

A delegation of progressive congressional lawmakers and candidates is
set to head to Uruguay [[link removed]] this
week to take part in a conference focused on Pan-American solidarity
[[link removed]] amid the resurgence of
both US imperialism [[link removed]] and
right-wing [[link removed]] governments
in the hemisphere.

The third Pan-American Congress
[[link removed]], to take place in the
Uruguayan capital Montevideo, will bring together progressive
legislators from North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean
to discuss what organizers describe as hemispheric cooperation based
on “solidarity between peoples” and “sovereignty among
nations”—a vision sharply at odds with what critics have dubbed US
President Donald Trump’s “Donroe Doctrine” militant imperialism.

The US delegation will be led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal
[[link removed]] (D-Wash.), joined
by Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.), Democratic congressional
candidate Dr. Adam Hamawy of New Jersey, and three members of
Democratic Socialists of America also running for Congress: Claire
Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier of New York and Chris Rabb from
Pennsylvania [[link removed]].

“We need to build a durable and lasting coalition of progressives
[[link removed]] that can take on the
right-wing forces and answer them with the necessary call of the
people,” Jayapal said in a video
[[link removed]] posted to social media
[[link removed]].

Sen. Bernie Sanders [[link removed]]
(I-Vt.) is slated to address the conference remotely. Congressional
Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar
[[link removed]] (D-Texas) will not
attend but expressed his support for “pushing back against
right-wing radicalization, tackling the climate crisis
[[link removed]], and addressing our
joint economic crisis.”

In an interview with El País published
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over the weekend, Japayal called the conference “an opportunity to
hear from our Latin American counterparts about what is happening on
the ground: how US foreign policy is affecting them and how we can
work together to build a progressive movement and combat far-right
disinformation. The United States
[[link removed]] is doing a lot of
pain with our Donroe Doctrine.”

Jayapal is leading a letter
[[link removed]]
signed by Sanders, Casar, García, and seven other progressive
Democrats asking Secretary of State Marco Rubio
[[link removed]] “to answer for the
regional implications of the ‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe
Doctrine, and ground US foreign policy toward the Western Hemisphere
on the principles of mutual respect and advancement of human rights
[[link removed]].”

“The interventions conducted under the banner of the ‘Donroe
Doctrine’ appear to follow a partisan playbook: the endorsement of
favored candidates, the placement of political allies, the
weaponization of tariffs [[link removed]]
and sanctions [[link removed]], and, where
those fail, the application of direct military force,” the lawmakers
wrote. “These are tactics that destabilize our hemisphere and
endanger our neighbors.”

Two of the letter’s signatories, Reps. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) and
Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), earlier this year introduced
[[link removed]] the New Good
Neighbor Act, a bill inspired by the short-lived period when the
Franklin D. Roosevelt administration pursued policies of
nonintervention and improved diplomatic relations with Latin America
[[link removed]] in the 1930s.

Since returning to the White House
[[link removed]] just last year,
Trump—who campaigned as the “peace president”—has bombed and
invaded [[link removed]]
Venezuela [[link removed]] to abduct
[[link removed]] President Nicolás
Maduro and his wife, launched airstrikes against what he claims
without evidence are drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and
Pacific Ocean, and deployed
[[link removed]]
troops to Ecuador [[link removed]] as part
of a joint campaign against alleged drug gangs dubbed Operation Total
Extermination.

Trump has also ordered the military to plan an invasion
[[link removed]]
to seize the Panama Canal, threatened to “take” Cuba
[[link removed]], possibly attack
Mexico and Colombia
[[link removed]], invade
and annex Greenland
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and somehow make Canada the “51st state
[[link removed]].”

That’s just in the Western Hemisphere. Overall, Trump has bombed
seven countries around the world since returning to the White House
[[link removed]] and 10 nations over the
course of his two terms—including Iran, where he launched an
increasingly protracted illegal war in concert with Israel.

Just last week, Ramirez dismissed
[[link removed]] as a
“cheap piece of imperialist propaganda” a video published by the
State Department hailing the Monroe Doctrine, which was cited to
justify numerous US wars of aggression, conquest, destabilizing
invasions, the overthrow of democratically elected governments, and
support for pro-Washington military dictatorships.

Issued in December 1823 by President James Monroe as Spanish colonies
in the Americas won their independence, the eponymous doctrine states
that European powers should not establish new colonies or interfere
politically in the independent states of the Western Hemisphere. While
it was partly a response to European attempts to restore colonial rule
in Latin America, the Monroe Doctrine also asserted US hegemony
[[link removed]] over the Americas.

According to
[[link removed]] John
Coatsworth, a historian specializing in Latin America, the US has
launched at least 41 interventions that successfully overthrew
governments in the Americas since 1898. The number of US military
[[link removed]] interventions in the
region is much higher
[[link removed]].

Former Colombian President Ernesto Samper, who is attending the
conference, told
[[link removed]]
The Hill on Monday that the resurgence of right-wing leaders,
including
[[link removed]]
Abelardo de la Espriella in his country, is “leading us toward a
form of neofascism.”

Samper said that Trump’s “hegemonic aggression” in the Americas
shows that the hemisphere “deserves a progressive and sensible
response, which I hope will emerge from this forum.”

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Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

 

* Pan-American Congress; Uruguay; Pramila Jayapal;
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