Panamerican Congress

Existing hemispheric initiatives have proven insuﬃcient or inadequate for this purpose. The Summit of the Americas, for example, gathers heads of state from across the region. But these Summits have failed to produce a viable political agenda to address shared needs.

Meanwhile, the Organization of American States (OAS), the institution historically tasked with managing hemispheric aﬀairs, has suﬀered from scandals that have significantly weakened its mandate.

In this vacuum of hemispheric governance, far-right forces have built new institutions, such as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), to advance a reactionary agenda that threatens the prospects for democracy, peace, and climate action across the region.

The Panamerican Congress is a response by the region’s progressive forces, institutionalizing the dialogue among leaders in North, Central, South Americas and the Caribbean — with three main objectives.

First, the Congress aims to build a community. Parliamentarians throughout the region are enthusiastic about hemispheric cooperation, but lack the network to do so. The Congress will bring these regional leaders together for the first time to forge lasting bonds of trust and collaboration.

Second, the Congress aims to build an agenda. The Congress will focus on countries with progressive coalitions in government. The convergence of progressive values and agendas will facilitate the formation of a shared political vision that participants will take back to their national legislatures.

Third, the Congress aims to build a strategy. The Congress will provide the space for parliamentarians to share good practices and successful political strategies in parliaments. This exchange will sharpen the strategic vision of each and every parliamentary delegation to bring their political agenda to life.

Acknowledging the shared fate of all peoples and nations of the Americas, bound together not only by our geography, but also by the unfinished history of our journeys from subjugated colonies to sovereign democracies;

Stressing the urgency of the crises that threaten our coexistence, floods and droughts, hunger and poverty, flows of lethal weapons and forced migration, the concentration of wealth and the accelerating risk of violent regional conflict;

Appreciating the disposition of the Government of Colombia to facilitate the present gathering in Bogotá, uniting delegates from across North, Central, South Americas and the Caribbean to redress the inequities, injustices, and existential crises that menace our hemisphere;

Defend our democracies, fighting disinformation and technological domination, foreign interference, and pernicious forms of ‘lawfare’; challenging the transnational oligarchy and the economic institutions that protect their interests; protecting civil liberties and the integrity, transparency, and accessibility of our electoral systems; dismantling the systems of patriarchy and structural racism; and advancing new social, economic, cultural, and environmental rights for all peoples in our nations;

Forge a lasting peace, through dialogue and diplomacy, opposing the politics of military and economic warfare that punish and displace our peoples; combating all forms of economic, political, racial, sexual, gender, and cultural exclusion; developing new and just forms to fight organized crime; advancing processes of peace that deliver justice to the victims of conflict; and constructing a hemispheric zone of peace that can resist the calls for a new Cold War;

Deliver a just green transition, combating destructive extraction from our ecosystems; defending our ancestral territories and vulnerable populations; and financing a reparative green transition that decarbonizes the economy, guarantees energy abundance, and protects the rights of Indigenous peoples, while accounting for the historic debts that the hemisphere’s developed nations owe to its developing ones;