The success of progressive candidates in the United States is inspiring leftists abroad struggling under pressure from the Trump administration and its allies.
Participants at the Panamerican Congress on Saturday in Montevideo, Uruguay.Credit...
By Jack Nicas
Photographs by Anita Pouchard Serra
Reporting from Montevideo, Uruguay
Aug. 27, 2026
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Left-wing politicians from across the Western Hemisphere gathered in Uruguay this past weekend to lick their wounds from a string of election losses and strategize on how to counter growing aggression from the Trump administration.
There were ex-presidents and expected presidential contenders, national lawmakers and campaign strategists, best-selling authors and protest leaders. But perhaps the toast of the weekend — viewed by the group as the inspiration for a path forward — were the democratic socialists from the United States, fresh off their primary victories.
Darializa Avila Chevalier is a democratic socialist and candidate for the House in New York’s 13th Congressional District.
Those candidates — Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez of New York, Chris Rabb of Pennsylvania and Dr. Adam Hamawy of New Jersey — were all special guests at the Panamerican Congress in Montevideo, an annual meeting of leftist political leaders from across the Americas. (Dr. Hamawy identifies as progressive but not democratic socialist.)
They received a standing ovation, were asked for selfies and were repeatedly cited by fellow attendees as examples on how the left can succeed in the current political moment.
Claire Valdez, a democratic socialist assemblywoman and close ally of Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York, is a candidate for the House in the city’s 13th Congressional District.
Their victories “give us hope that if this can be fought from within, it can also be fought from the outside,” said Gabriel Boric, the former president of Chile, who was succeeded in March by a hard-right politician aligned with President Trump.
Mr. Boric, 40, a former protest leader, said the left had been failing to make the case to the working class that it was best positioned to help them, but the democratic socialists in the United States were showing they could.
“There is a tendency in our movement to constantly talk about the right and all the evils it represents, instead of convincing and giving hope to the people,” he said in an interview. “Now that debate is happening in the United States.”
Their victories “give us hope that if this can be fought from within, it can also be fought from the outside,” said Gabriel Boric, the former president of Chile, who was succeeded in March by a hard-right politician aligned with President Trump.
Mr. Boric, 40, a former protest leader, said the left had been failing to make the case to the working class that it was best positioned to help them, but the democratic socialists in the United States were showing they could.
“There is a tendency in our movement to constantly talk about the right and all the evils it represents, instead of convincing and giving hope to the people,” he said in an interview. “Now that debate is happening in the United States.”
