Report From the Progressive International’s Nuestra América Summit
Is this competence or optics?
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February 2, 2026
Report From the Progressive International’s Nuestra Summit
Colombia holds its breath as President Gustavo Petro heads to DC.
Natasha Hakimi Zapata
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Full public forum at the Teatro Colón for Progressive International’s Nuestra América Summit Saturday and Sunday, January 24–25, 2026.(Seth Garben)
Bogotá— “Don’t go!” more than one voice could be heard shouting in the packed Teatro Colón on January 24. The plea was in response to Colombian senator María José Pizarro Rodríguez’s declaration that Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro would be traveling to the White House on February 3 “in an act of courage.” While the popular Pacto Histórico senator was mostly met with cheers and chants of the Chilean protest song, “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido,” the mixed response captures the overwhelming uneasiness in Colombia as their leader prepares to visit a country that mere weeks ago kidnapped Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from the presidential palace in neighboring Venezuela.
“The bombing of Caracas made the threat of military intervention in Colombia feel more materially possible than we’d ever imagined,” Esteban Romero, a 27-year-old political scientist and local activist, told The Nation.
Pizarro spoke as part of the Progressive International’s “Nuestra América” summit during which 90 delegates from 20 countries discussed the Trump administration’s increasingly belligerent threats to a region treated as the United States’ “backyard” since the original Monroe Doctrine was issued. A slew of other high-ranking Colombian government officials, including Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio, hosted Progressive International delegates at the San Carlos Palace, sending the clear message that the Colombian left is taking a leading role in responding to the “Donroe Doctrine” or “Trump corollary” to the 1823 text that has justified two centuries of US interventionism. The summit was a rare show of international left solidarity and a resounding condemnation of Trump’s violations of international law at a time in which American politicians and media have been reluctant, at best, to censure the president’s imperialist machinations.
“Latin America has decades of individuals and organizations that have directly confronted US imperialism,” PI delegate and former US Green Party vice presidential Candidate Ajamu Baraka, who now lives in the Colombian city of Cali, told The Nation. “People here are prepared to resist and to struggle.”
The summit was notably well-attended by a number of progressives from both the Global North and South, despite being organized at short notice …
Is this competence or optics?
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Current Issue
February 2, 2026
Report From the Progressive International’s Nuestra Summit
Colombia holds its breath as President Gustavo Petro heads to DC.
Natasha Hakimi Zapata
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
Full public forum at the Teatro Colón for Progressive International’s Nuestra América Summit Saturday and Sunday, January 24–25, 2026.(Seth Garben)
Bogotá— “Don’t go!” more than one voice could be heard shouting in the packed Teatro Colón on January 24. The plea was in response to Colombian senator María José Pizarro Rodríguez’s declaration that Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro would be traveling to the White House on February 3 “in an act of courage.” While the popular Pacto Histórico senator was mostly met with cheers and chants of the Chilean protest song, “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido,” the mixed response captures the overwhelming uneasiness in Colombia as their leader prepares to visit a country that mere weeks ago kidnapped Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from the presidential palace in neighboring Venezuela.
“The bombing of Caracas made the threat of military intervention in Colombia feel more materially possible than we’d ever imagined,” Esteban Romero, a 27-year-old political scientist and local activist, told The Nation.
Pizarro spoke as part of the Progressive International’s “Nuestra América” summit during which 90 delegates from 20 countries discussed the Trump administration’s increasingly belligerent threats to a region treated as the United States’ “backyard” since the original Monroe Doctrine was issued. A slew of other high-ranking Colombian government officials, including Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio, hosted Progressive International delegates at the San Carlos Palace, sending the clear message that the Colombian left is taking a leading role in responding to the “Donroe Doctrine” or “Trump corollary” to the 1823 text that has justified two centuries of US interventionism. The summit was a rare show of international left solidarity and a resounding condemnation of Trump’s violations of international law at a time in which American politicians and media have been reluctant, at best, to censure the president’s imperialist machinations.
“Latin America has decades of individuals and organizations that have directly confronted US imperialism,” PI delegate and former US Green Party vice presidential Candidate Ajamu Baraka, who now lives in the Colombian city of Cali, told The Nation. “People here are prepared to resist and to struggle.”
The summit was notably well-attended by a number of progressives from both the Global North and South, despite being organized at short notice …
Report From the Progressive International’s Nuestra América Summit
Is this competence or optics?
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Current Issue
February 2, 2026
Report From the Progressive International’s Nuestra Summit
Colombia holds its breath as President Gustavo Petro heads to DC.
Natasha Hakimi Zapata
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
Full public forum at the Teatro Colón for Progressive International’s Nuestra América Summit Saturday and Sunday, January 24–25, 2026.(Seth Garben)
Bogotá— “Don’t go!” more than one voice could be heard shouting in the packed Teatro Colón on January 24. The plea was in response to Colombian senator María José Pizarro Rodríguez’s declaration that Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro would be traveling to the White House on February 3 “in an act of courage.” While the popular Pacto Histórico senator was mostly met with cheers and chants of the Chilean protest song, “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido,” the mixed response captures the overwhelming uneasiness in Colombia as their leader prepares to visit a country that mere weeks ago kidnapped Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from the presidential palace in neighboring Venezuela.
“The bombing of Caracas made the threat of military intervention in Colombia feel more materially possible than we’d ever imagined,” Esteban Romero, a 27-year-old political scientist and local activist, told The Nation.
Pizarro spoke as part of the Progressive International’s “Nuestra América” summit during which 90 delegates from 20 countries discussed the Trump administration’s increasingly belligerent threats to a region treated as the United States’ “backyard” since the original Monroe Doctrine was issued. A slew of other high-ranking Colombian government officials, including Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio, hosted Progressive International delegates at the San Carlos Palace, sending the clear message that the Colombian left is taking a leading role in responding to the “Donroe Doctrine” or “Trump corollary” to the 1823 text that has justified two centuries of US interventionism. The summit was a rare show of international left solidarity and a resounding condemnation of Trump’s violations of international law at a time in which American politicians and media have been reluctant, at best, to censure the president’s imperialist machinations.
“Latin America has decades of individuals and organizations that have directly confronted US imperialism,” PI delegate and former US Green Party vice presidential Candidate Ajamu Baraka, who now lives in the Colombian city of Cali, told The Nation. “People here are prepared to resist and to struggle.”
The summit was notably well-attended by a number of progressives from both the Global North and South, despite being organized at short notice …
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