Latin America moves left and forward.

• Author: Ruiz-Marrero, Carmelo
• Position: Conference notes

The Foro de Sao Paulo (FSP), a forum that brings together most of the Latin American left, had its 18th meeting in the Venezuelan city of Caracas on July 4-6, 2012. In attendance were representatives of practically all of the Foro's member organizations, including El Salvador's FMLN, Nicaragua's Sandinistas, Guatemala's URNG (all three of them former guerrilla groups), the Cuban Communist Party, Ecuador's Alianza PAIS, Uruguay's Frente Amplio, Bolivia's Movement Toward Socialism and the Puerto Rico Socialist Front, as well as leftist and socialist political parties from countries like Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Barbados and Argentina.

The host country's left pulled out all stops in helping to organize the event. Countless youth volunteers of the ruling party--president Hugo Chavez's PSUV--looked after every detail of logistics and protocol, and the local Communist Party, the PCV, was also out in force. There was also a substantial number of observers and dignitaries from other parts of the world, including Russia, China, Vietnam, Saharaui, Lebanon, Palestine, France, Spain and Greece. VIPs included Nobel laureate Rigoberta Menchit from Guatemala, and writers Ignacio Ramonet and Atilio Boron, who sat in places of honor near President Chavez at the closing activity.

Brazil's delegation, which included the ruling Workers' Party (PT) and the Communist Party (PcdoB, now celebrating its 90 years), had a commanding presence in Caracas. The PT was indeed the main driving force behind the FSP's founding, and the meeting's proceedings were presided over by the extremely capable Brazilian political strategist Valter Pomar, who is not only the Foro's executive secretary but also a member of the PT's top leadership.

Currently one of the world's leading economies, Brazil has a gross domestic product dozens of times the size of any of its neighbors'. The country's political and economic shadow looms over all South America. The PT has won the last three presidential elections--in the first two of these the winning candidate was former factory worker and labor organizer Luiz Inacio "Lula" Da Silva, and the current president is the former guerrilla and political prisoner Dilma Roussef. It must be regarded as the most important political institution of the Latin American left and one of the single most important political parties in the hemisphere. Lula fully intended to come to Caracas but could not do so due to health problems. He did, however, send a video greeting in which he expressed support for President Chavez's reelection bid.

The FSP is definitely not to be confused with the...