A group of U.S. lawmakers will meet with their Latin American counterparts this week to form a new multinational congress to tackle thorny cross-border issues such as climate change and migration across the Western Hemisphere.
Organizers say the newly formed Pan-American Congress will differ from the European Union parliament because it will not make laws for the region. Nor, they say, should it be seen as an alternative to the Organization of American States, the largest regional body that is often criticized for being allegedly dominated by Washington.
Instead, organizers hope the new body will create a new forum for exchanging ideas and proposing policies to address persistent regional problems.
“Instead of the old model of the United States trying to dominate Latin America, we should be working with Latin America to survive climate change and address shared economic needs,” Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) said in an interview.
“We need new models to replace the Monroe Doctrine,” he added, referring to the 19th-century U.S. policy that discouraged European interference in Latin America but was also used at times to assert U.S. dominance over the hemisphere.
In addition to the United States, seven other countries from across the hemisphere will be represented at the meeting in the Colombian capital, Bogotá.
Casar is one of three Democratic members of the U.S. Congress (along with the chief of staff of a fourth) who make up the delegation from here.
Besides Colombia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico are also participating. Most of them are led by progressive governments and their representatives in Congress belong mainly to left-leaning political parties.
The three-day meeting will begin on Saturday. The host country, Colombia, governed by the first left-wing president in its history, Gustavo Petro, will inaugurate the congress together with Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo.
The event is being organized in Washington by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive think tank, which invited a limited group of Democratic lawmakers focused on Latin America.
“The challenges facing our hemisphere — democratic backsliding, the climate crisis, extreme poverty, political violence, family displacement — are too urgent, too significant for any one nation to tackle alone,” Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois, another member of the U.S. delegation, said in a statement. “The Pan-American Congress brings together legislators and leaders from across the continent committed to realizing a future of justice, peace and stability across the continent, together.”
As an example of what Congress has the potential to do, Casar pointed to conversations he had with his counterparts about the Amazon rainforest and the massive devastation the region is suffering. As a result, he pushed for a commitment from Biden to allocate $100 million a year for five years to the Amazon Fund, a Brazilian investment initiative dedicated to preserving and restoring the Amazon basin. (About $50 million was given to the fund, but the GOP-controlled House ultimately blocked additional money, Casar’s office said.)
“It is encouraging to see U.S. policymakers, who have historically been largely absent from regional dialogue efforts, engaging in extensive discussions with their regional counterparts in a spirit of mutual respect and equality,” said Alex Main, who directs international policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Casar said the Biden administration has made progress in some areas, such as addressing the root causes of illegal immigration to the United States and taking steps to reduce the use of fossil fuels that are warming the planet. But there is still a long way to go, he added.
“We are starting to see real change, but in [the U.S.] “We are very behind with Congress,” he said. “We need to speed up the pace.”
It is unclear how much influence the Pan-American Congress might have. It will be seen as a progressive effort, meaning there is little chance it will gain bipartisan support in the United States. There will likely be a similar reluctance to participate in more conservative governments in Latin America and the Caribbean.
