The San Carlos Palace, headquarters of the Colombian Foreign Ministry, is the meeting point for more than 100 global leaders at the “Our America” emergency summit, which seeks to discuss and articulate a plan to defend the sovereignty of the Latin American region.
The meeting, convened by the Progressive International organization, brings together ministers, parliamentarians and representatives of Latin American social movements this weekend to establish mechanisms of cooperation and solidarity between governments in the face of the growing interventionist escalation of the United States in the countries of the center and south of the continent.
The summit is an opportunity to “begin to outline a more representative, inclusive and fair international order of resistance, which puts human beings and their dignity at the center,” said Colombian Foreign Minister Yolanda Villavicencio during the summit installation. The official recalled that yesterday, Friday, the United States Army attacked an alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific, an operation that left two dead and is part of the anti-drug trafficking operation called “Lanza del Sur.”
“The attack carried out under the justification or pretext of the fight against drug trafficking resulted in an extrajudicial execution of at least two people (…) They add to more than 120 murdered in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Sea since September 3 of last year,” he noted.
The chancellor denounced that this fact is part of the “unilateral measures, interference in sovereignty, pressure on our judicial systems and ambition on our natural resources” that the United States exerts “in the last 12 months, but also in the last two centuries in which our Latin America has been a victim.”
For his part, the general coordinator of the Progressive International, David Adler, highlighted that “Our America” convenes all the social forces of the hemisphere to defend not only the sovereignty of Colombia, but “the self-determination of all peoples”, through the renewal of ideas of the different leaderships.
“The message is that in the face of the tyranny of foreign coercion we are going to join forces and form a new front to seek the unity of the people of Latin America and protect the sacred principle of self-determination that today faces an existential threat,” he indicated in an interview with Xinhua.
The leader announced that the organization will support President Gustavo Petro on his next visit to Washington, where he will meet with his American counterpart, Donald Trump.
“It can be a historic step to reestablish a relationship not based on an exercise of domination from the north but on mutual understanding and respect for the sovereignty of Colombia and that is why we are here. “As long as we still have the aircraft carrier close and while President Petro is still on the OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) list, we do not feel complete tranquility on this visit,” he said.
“Unfortunately we learned of the 33rd attack against a boat in the waters of the region by the United States,” confirmed the Foreign Minister of Colombia, Rosa Villavicencio, during the opening of the Nuestra América hemispheric summit.
Likewise, he added that the attack carried out under the justification or pretext of the war against drug trafficking “resulted in an extrajudicial execution of at least two people” and maintained that these actions are part of a history of aggression that has affected Latin America for centuries. “Civilian life is not collateral damage and force cannot become custom,” he stated.
“Unilateral measures on sovereignty, pressure on our judicial systems, ambition on natural resources (…) in the last two centuries, our America has been the scene of these many acts of aggression,” he stated.
At the same time, he questioned the current international order and stressed that the Government of the country’s president, Gustavo Petro, is guided by a foreign policy of peace, independent, people-oriented and progressive.
This will also be a space to socialize the different concerns that we have in relation to the president of the Republic of Colombia and the sovereignty of our country and our continent,” he added.
The forum was convened by the Progressive International in response to what the organization describes as a rise in geopolitical tensions on the continent and combines closed-door sessions with public events, including an event scheduled for Saturday night at the Teatro Colón in Bogotá.
The meeting, which takes place under the motto ‘Our America’, brings together more than 100 international delegates, including ministers, parliamentarians and social leaders from different countries.
Participants include former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio; the vice president of the French National Assembly, Clémence Guetté; the Spanish deputy Gerardo Pisarello; former Ecuadorian presidential candidate Andrés Arauz; Colombian senator María José Pizarro; the Uruguayan senator Bettiana Díaz, and the president of the European Left Party, Walter Baier, among others.
The summit will culminate on Sunday with a joint statement from those present, including the organizer of the Sumud Global Flotilla from Brazil, Thiago Ávila; the vice president of the French National Assembly, Clémence Guette; the Spanish deputy Gerardo Pisarello; and the Uruguayan senator Bettiana Díaz, among others.
