Popular Steering Committee for a Zone of Peace in Our Americas, Black Alliance for Peace.
The organizations, social movements, and grassroots networks gathered here in Havana, Cuba, from August 15 to 17, 2026, as part of the “Campaign for a Zone of Peace in Our Americas,” commemorate the 12th anniversary of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, adopted at the Second Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in 2014, as well as Maurice Bishop’s earlier concept of the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace in 1980. We reaffirm the full validity of that declaration and the unrestricted commitment of our peoples to ensure respect for this fundamental principle.
The current Campaign for a Zone of Peace in Our Americas — launched on April 4, 2023, simultaneously in Havana, Cuba; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; and Washington, D.C., U.S. — arises in response to the growing threat posed by U.S. imperialism to peace, sovereignty, self-determination, and self-defense, as well as to the popular struggle of our peoples. We are gathering in Cuba to commemorate the centennial of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, whose vision of Latin American and Caribbean unity inspires and guides us in the struggle for a region free from interference, militarization, and imperialist domination. We salute the initiative and the warm welcome extended by the Cuban people, who once again demonstrate their internationalist solidarity. In response to the United States’ escalating violent attacks against the sovereignty of Cuba and its people, this particular gathering focuses on on-the-ground coordination and the necessary communication with grassroots organizations in Cuba to confront these lethal forms of U.S. militarization — economic, political, social, and military — in line with the principles of the Cuban Revolution.
Political Context in the Americas
In our current political context, the Donald Trump administration—with Secretary of State Marco Rubio leading the latest wave of attacks on our regional peace—has revived the worst specter of the Monroe Doctrine, seeking to exercise hegemonic control over Our Americas and acting in service of the neocolonialist ambitions of the U.S. and its partners. This includes the “Shield of the Americas,” an infamous multinational military cooperation initiative that in reality masks a strategy of military intervention, territorial control, and recolonization of our nations, and represents a violation of the spirit and letter of the Peace Zone Proclamation.
Alongside this, we are witnessing a reorganization of the right wing and neo-fascism in the region, manifested in governments and political forces that align their policies with the interests of U.S. imperialism. The United States has significantly reinforced its military presence in the Caribbean and the Latin American Pacific with ships, fighter jets, and special forces. In various ways, this military expansion has been particularly pronounced in Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Panama. Approximately 15,000 U.S. troops are deployed in the Caribbean, marking one of the largest deployments in the region in decades. Above all, the economic, commercial, financial, and energy blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba has been tightened through executive orders that intensify its extraterritorial nature. This has created a precarious situation for the Cuban people, who are experiencing one of the most difficult periods in the history of their glorious Revolution.
Against this backdrop, we state the following positions:
- We stand in solidarity with the people of Cuba in the face of the consequences of this imperialist and genocidal U.S. policy, and we denounce the charges against the leader of the Cuban Revolution and Army General Raúl Castro as a violation of international law, as well as the recent executive orders and judicial rulings adopted by the Trump administration that violate international law and the most recent report published by the U.S. State Department, titled “Cuba: The Capital of 21st-Century Communism,” which seeks to threaten peace, international cooperation, and brotherhood among peoples.
- We denounce extrajudicial executions in the Caribbean and the Pacific, as well as the continuation of an undeclared occupation of Haiti, presented as part of U.S. agencies’ false war on terrorism and drug trafficking.
- We call on all progressive forces in the Caribbean to support, encourage, and lead the process for the remaining Caribbean nations to achieve full political independence and regional integration with sovereignty.
- We reject the fascist imperialist tool and group called “The Shield of the Americas,” and call on the peoples of Our Americas to organize to resist it.
- We denounce these military exercises and the growing militarization of our territories, which turn the region into a theater of conflict and endanger the stability and preservation of the area as a Zone of Peace.
- We condemn the military aggression against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and we firmly demand the release of the kidnapped Constitutional President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros, along with First Lady Cilia Flores, who were abducted by U.S. military forces.
- We defend the sovereignty of all countries in the region, with special attention to the sovereignty to Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
Organizational Tasks
Given the current political situation and the state of the imperialist assault against the peoples of the Americas and the world, it is clear that peace is a prerequisite for human and planetary survival. The Black Radical Peace Tradition holds that peace is not the absence of conflict, but rather the achievement—through popular struggle and self-defense—of a world liberated from interconnected and intersectional oppression. With this understanding, we will guarantee and reclaim the development of a Zone of Peace, emerging from the peoples of the region toward the centers of power, through the struggle against imperialism, militarism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and all other structures of oppression. Guaranteeing a Zone of Peace, starting from the people, requires an approach focused on People(s)-Centered Human Rights, anticolonialism, and anti-imperialism; the defeat of white supremacy and patriarchy; and the development of a true and just peace.
In light of the challenges facing our region, we call on the forces of the continent to adopt three definitive priorities toward a Zone of Peace guaranteed by the struggle against U.S. imperialism and militarism:
- Defend Cuba and its revolution against imperialist war.
- Expel foreign military bases, facilities, and enclaves; and withdraw foreign occupation troops.
- Fight – through integration and mobilization – for the definitive liberation of all occupied territories and for the achievement of sovereignty, self-determination and national independence, with emphasis on a commitment to the self-determination of all English-speaking, Spanish-speaking, French-speaking, and Dutch-speaking Caribbean countries, as key to advancing decolonization across the region.
WE REAFFIRM OUR SOLIDARITY WITH ALL THE PEOPLES OF THE REGION WHO ARE RESISTING IMPERIALIST AGGRESSION.
NO WAR ON CUBA!
LONG LIVE OUR AMERICAS AS A ZONE OF PEACE! LONG LIVE UNITY AMONG OUR PEOPLES!
Proclaimed in Havana, Cuba, on the 17th day of August 2026.
By representatives of:
Acción Afrodominicana
Black Alliance for Peace
Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration
Compas de la Diáspora
Congreso Constituyente del Pueblos Negros, Afrodescendientes, Raizales y Palenqueros
Juventudes Revolucionarios de Panamá
Juventud Vanguardista Costarricense
Movimiento Afro Nacional Ecuatoriano (MANE)
Movimiento Evita
Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition
North/South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights
Red Barrial Afrodescendiente de Cuba
Red de Organizacions Afrovenezolanas (ROA) y Articulacion Regional Afrodescendientes de America Latina y el Caribe (ARAAC)
Resist U.S.-Led War Movement
SOLI Puerto Rico
Trinbago for Palestine
World Beyond War – Latin America
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