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On the final day of the Second Pan-American Congress this month, more than 60 delegates from 12 countries made their way into the Secretary of Public Education headquarters in downtown Mexico City. As leaders from the Americas walked through the building’s passages and patios, many stopped to take pictures in front of the walls lined with murals from famous artists, including Diego Rivera.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site served as the location of the final plenary of the three-day gathering aimed at uniting progressive and democratic forces in the Western hemisphere to take on rising far right authoritarianism.

Delegates representing communities from as far as Nunavut in Canada to the extreme southern tip of South America eventually took their seats in the Ibero-American Hall, a space adorned with a massive, nearly 1,500-square-foot mural, appropriately called “The Union of Latin America” by Roberto Montenegro.

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From this hall, the message from Mexico was unambiguous: The peoples and the elected representatives of this hemisphere are ready to act to confront the global threat of fascism.

“We are of course facing an authoritarian threat in the world: it is the return of fascist positions to power,” María José Pizarro, a Colombian senator from the ruling Pacto Historico coalition, told Truthout. “In the face of this, we must therefore build joint strategies that allow us to confront it in the best possible way in countries where this is already happening, and in those where it is not, to prevent the return of this type of government.”

When it comes to hemispheric relations, U.S. President Donald Trump has pursued what has been described as a “divide and conquer” strategy, leveraging the national interests of one country against another and pitting neighbors against each other in order to squeeze out concessions from leaders. Trump has been able to follow this strategy to varying degrees of success, in part due to the lack of unity regarding the threat he represents to the entire world.

“[Fascism] is not a regional threat, it’s not a threat to one country, it’s a threat that’s growing worldwide,” said Pizarro.

From the Atlas Network, a coalition of right-wing think tanks and advocacy groups that promote neoliberal policies globally, to Trump’s open and blatant interference inside Brazil in order to back his ally, former President Jair Bolsonaro, in the face of charges over his effort to carry out a coup after losing the 2022 election, the far right has been successful in building trans-national links.

One aim of the Pan-American Congress is to break down barriers between progressives and anti-fascists who have historically lacked an institutional space to better coordinate their own regional response.

One standout feature of this gathering was the participation of elected representatives from the United States, including Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Illinois), Delia Ramírez (D-Illinois), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan); Canadian Members of Parliament (MPs), such as interim New Democratic Party leader Don Davies, Leah Gazan, and Lori Idlout; and MPs from the governing Liberals, such as........

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