Montevideo hosts a progressive congress after three consecutive electoral defeats in the region

Friday, August 21st 2026 - 10:12 UTC

The meeting takes place at an adverse moment for those forces. The last three presidential elections in Latin America were won by conservative candidates. Photo: Sebastián Astorga

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.”