More than a hundred lawmakers, former presidents, ministers and political figures from fifteen countries across the Americas gather from Friday at Uruguay's Legislative Palace in Montevideo for the third Pan-American Congress, a parliamentary forum of progressive forces running until Sunday. Organisers put attendance at more than 150 participants.
The meeting takes place at an adverse moment for those forces. The last three presidential elections in Latin America were won by conservative candidates: José Antonio Kast in Chile, Keiko Fujimori in Peru and Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia, all three sworn in this year. Uruguay and Brazil remain the main centre-left governments in South America.
“We are not arriving in a golden age, but in full recognition of those defeats,” said the congress's general coordinator, David Adler, an economist, co-founder of the Progressive International and a former adviser to US Senator Bernie Sanders. He explained that some sessions will be held behind closed doors “to talk frankly about good practices and also about experiments that have failed to reach the public.”
Under the slogan “Solidarity among peoples, sovereignty among nations,” the programme is organised around four themes: peace, security and multilateralism; sustainable development and regional integration; digital sovereignty and artificial intelligence; and wellbeing and care. Organisers also propose rebalancing relations between the north and south of the continent. “We have the International Monetary Fund and the Organization of American States, both headquartered in Washington, which shows an architecture in which the north speaks and expects the south to obey,” Adler said.
The congress was created in 2024 in Bogotá on the initiative of then Colombian president Gustavo Petro and held its second edition in Mexico City in 2025. It closes a week of events in the Uruguayan capital that included a gathering of women in politics, a closed forum of fourteen parties from eleven countries and the relaunch of the magazine Nueva Sociedad.
The Uruguayan delegation will be led by President Yamandú Orsi, who opens the forum, alongside Vice-President Carolina Cosse, former vice-president Lucía Topolansky and the secretary of the presidency, Alejandro Sánchez. International participants include former presidents Ernesto Samper of Colombia and Gabriel Boric of Chile; the governor of Buenos Aires province, Axel Kicillof; Brazilian senator Humberto Costa, of the Workers' Party; Mexican Morena official Carolina Rangel; and US representatives Pramila Jayapal and Jesús García.
Adler highlighted the choice of Uruguay as host. “We have a great deal to learn from Uruguayan society, which has a very living memory and knew how to deepen its democratic roots,” he said.
Top Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesNo comments for this story
Please log in or register (it’s free!) to comment. Login with Facebook
Facts Only
* More than 150 lawmakers, former presidents, ministers, and political figures from fifteen countries are attending the third Pan-American Congress.
* The event takes place from Friday to Sunday at the Legislative Palace in Montevideo, Uruguay.
* Recent presidential elections in Chile, Peru, and Colombia were won by conservative candidates José Antonio Kast, Keiko Fujimori, and Abelardo de la Espriella.
* Current center-left governments remain in Uruguay and Brazil.
* The program covers four themes: peace, security and multilateralism; sustainable development and regional integration; digital sovereignty and artificial intelligence; and wellbeing and care.
* David Adler serves as the congress's general coordinator.
* The congress was established in 2024 in Bogotá and held its second edition in Mexico City in 2025.
* The Uruguayan delegation includes President Yamandú Orsi, Vice-President Carolina Cosse, former vice-president Lucía Topolansky, and secretary Alejandro Sánchez.
* International attendees include former presidents Ernesto Samper and Gabriel Boric, Governor Axel Kicillof, Senator Humberto Costa, official Carolina Rangel, and US representatives Pramila Jayapal and Jesús García.
* Related events in Montevideo included a gathering of women in politics, a forum of fourteen parties from eleven countries, and the relaunch of Nueva Sociedad magazine.
Executive Summary
The third Pan-American Congress is currently convening in Montevideo, bringing together over 150 progressive political figures from fifteen nations. The forum arrives at a challenging juncture for the Latin American left, following a series of conservative electoral victories in Chile, Peru, and Colombia. Consequently, the agenda focuses on analyzing these political defeats and identifying failed experiments through closed-door sessions, while publicly promoting themes of sustainable development, digital sovereignty, and a rebalancing of North-South geopolitical relations.
Led by figures such as Uruguay's President Yamandú Orsi and various former heads of state, the congress seeks to challenge the existing institutional architecture dominated by Washington-based organizations like the IMF and OAS. The event is part of a broader series of progressive gatherings in the Uruguayan capital, aiming to leverage Uruguay's democratic history as a model for regional stability. While the assembly represents a significant concentration of progressive force, it operates against a backdrop of shifting electoral tides across the Americas.
Full Take
The strongest version of this narrative is that a fragmented progressive movement is attempting a strategic pivot toward intellectual rigor and regional solidarity to survive a conservative resurgence in the Americas. It frames the congress not as a victory lap, but as a necessary post-mortem of political failures.
The narrative relies on a binary framing of "North vs. South," positioning Washington-based institutions as inherently domineering to justify a move toward regional autonomy. However, this serves as a structural anchor for the event's legitimacy, transforming electoral losses into a broader struggle for "sovereignty."
Patterns detected: none
The driving paradigm is one of "Anti-Hegemony." It assumes that political defeat is a result of systemic architectural imbalances rather than specific policy failures or local voter dissatisfaction. This echoes the historical "Pink Tide" movements of the early 2000s, now attempting to adapt to a digital and AI-driven era. The implication is that agency is reclaimed through collective regionalism, though the cost is a potential further polarization between ideological blocs in the Americas.
Bridge Questions:
1. To what extent are the "failed experiments" mentioned by David Adler specific to progressive governance versus general systemic instability in the region?
2. How does the transition from public rhetoric to "closed-door" honesty change the actual policy outputs of such a forum?
3. Would the call for "digital sovereignty" be viewed as liberation or isolation if implemented by a conservative administration?
Counterstrike Scan:
An influence campaign pushing this narrative would likely use "Crisis-Opportunity" framing—amplifying the "adverse moment" to create a sense of urgency and "savior" dynamics around the congress. The actual content is too focused on logistical details and named participants to match this pattern; it reads as standard reporting on a political event.