Miami, FL – Friends and allies from across the United States and the Ibero-sphere who share a commitment to advancing freedom, security, and prosperity in our respective countries gathered in Miami, Florida on July 18-19, 2023, to discuss the way forward. We found that we share a vision that free, sovereign nations must promote and defend self-governance and human flourishing, and that we face common obstacles and threats. 

We gathered for the inaugural Carvalho Dialogue in honor of the late Olavo de Carvalho, the Brazilian teacher and philosopher. In 2009, Carvalho warned about the threat posed by the “Foro de São Paulo” (São Paulo Forum) and its stated goal to unite “all Communist and pro-Communist parties and movements of Latin America, and in developing new strategies, more flexible and better camouflaged, for the conquest of power.” 

Today, several authoritarian regimes throughout the region embrace this anti-democratic agenda. Our conversations in Miami focused on many of the consequences of what is a multinational anti-democratic effort, and we expressed an urgency to unite civil society with political and business leaders throughout the Americas to resist it. In this statement, we address the main challenges to freedom and security in the Western Hemisphere. 

1. Rising Crime, Violence, and Drug Trafficking. The convergence of criminal and political leaders, transnational organized crime, and international terrorism is overpowering both public and private sectors in several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.  Some countries have permitted the mass import, manufacture, and trafficking of deadly drugs into neighboring countries.

2. Radical, “Woke” U.S. policies. Throughout the Americas, we see foreign powers posing challenges to governance, sovereignty, and tranquility. Sadly, U.S. government policies and actions not only fail to deter these influences, but even enable them, by showing little regard to the sovereignty, freedom, culture, and the values of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Biden administration is deliberately alienating the societies of Latin America by pushing divisive and radical gender and race ideologies that violate cultural and religious norms. Flying of BLM or “Pride” flags at American embassies overseas, and the sexualization of children, offend populations that used to be favorably disposed toward the U.S. This promotion of divisive domestic ideology alienates and drives potential U.S. allies into the arms of Russia and China.

3. Weaponized Immigration. Several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have willfully failed to fully control their national territory and combat crime, corruption, and the illegal movement of people and goods. Illegal mass migration is used by state and non-state actors to undermine national sovereignty, the rule of law, and civil society across the Hemisphere. 

4. Corrosive Foreign Influences. Russia, Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Bolivia are working as a malign, multi-polar authoritarian alliance in Latin America and the Caribbean, erecting and strengthening anti-democratic regimes that spread corrupt and authoritarian governance throughout the region. 

   • The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using coercive economic tactics to pre-position military assets in Latin America and the Caribbean through dual-use infrastructure projects. 

   • Russia is engaged in an aggressive foreign disinformation campaign to confuse, polarize, and manipulate populations in the Western Hemisphere about national security issues from the Ukraine War to U.S. border crisis.

   • The Islamic Republic of Iran has partnered with Venezuela to develop the first armed drone program in Latin America. Together with Russia, the three countries, through proxy companies and paramilitary organizations, have developed an air and sea bridge throughout the Atlantic to empower a transregional threat network. 

5. Persistent Corruption. A lack of principled and competent political leaders, government officials and business leaders in the Americas has significantly hurt the rule of law in the region. Meanwhile, the U.S. government uses a domestic political lens to selectively apply anti-corruption efforts and sanctions in Latin America, thereby politicizing the judicial environment and ostracizing existing and potential partners in the region. 

6. Silencing Dissent. An increasing number of journalists, political figures, leading thinkers, and others in civil society are being persecuted by malign regimes in the Americas for exposing economic and political corruption and threats to fundamental civil liberties. This includes, in some cases, having their assets frozen, businesses closed, social media accounts shut down, passports cancelled, and even citizenship revoked. In this regard, special attention needs to be paid to Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Cuba, and Honduras. 

7. Weaponized NGOs. A network of politicized non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the Americas are aggressively distorting on-the-ground realities and spreading disinformation on a range of cultural, security, ethnic, and judicial issues in the region. Some of these NGOs have ties to transnational criminal organizations, while others are funded by the U.S. Government and development agencies from Europe and Canada.  

Patriots across our hemisphere must counter the serious threats we are currently facing by telling truth and revealing lies. They must defend economic freedom, free speech and press, and the rule of law. The Carvalho Dialogue will build an enduring network to exchange information and share policy ideas that work.