200 Years After Bolívar’s Dream, Panama Once Again Summons America
Guevara Mann pictured below highlights three traits of Bolívar: ‘his fight for freedom, his unwavering commitment to the republican system of government, and his commitment to amphictyony and multilateralism’.
In June 2026, Panama is hosting the Bicentennial Commemoration of the Amphictyonic Congress alongside the 56th OAS General Assembly. Convening seven heads of state and 68 international delegations in Panama City, the summit revisits Simón Bolívar’s 1826 dream of hemispheric unity to address modern democratic resilience and multilateral cooperation in the Americas.
Two hundred years ago, Panama received an idea that was too big for its time: to bring the young American republics together under one table, to make them look each other in the eye, to discuss their differences and to try out a way of walking together. Two centuries later, the country is trying to reclaim that symbolic place: a meeting point, a political bridge, and a common home for a region that shares history, language, wounds, and hopes, but cannot speak with one voice.
