HUNDREDS of representatives of peoples’ movements from across the Caribbean and Latin America have come together in the Colombian coastal city of Santa Marta alongside the meeting of nations from the region with the European Union.

The meetings took place against the backdrop of an increasing US military presence in the Caribbean which they claim is aimed at curbing drug trafficking.

Opening the two-day activist summit on Monday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro warned the US to “be careful — you are crossing the Caribbean of the liberators. Be careful — you are meddling with the homeland of Bolivar.

“They are reaching the islands and the lands where armies of peasants with spears defeated the most powerful armies in the world.”

Participants in the People’s Social Summit agreed a joint statement expressing solidarity with Palestine, denouncing the military threats against Venezuela, and pledging to fight for social justice, migrant rights and against gender discrimination.

The statement said  the meeting was “a step toward defending our continent as a zone of peace in the face of imperialist threats.”

Oliver Rivas, from the Venezuelan Network of Workers of the Somas Movement, described the attacks on boats across the Caribbean by the US, which have killed at least 70 people in 17 strikes, as “extermination operations,” and part of the latest plan to try to overthrow Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.

The Peoples’ Social Summit took place after the fourth summit between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and the European Union issued a joint declaration on Sunday.

The 52-point declaration was signed by 32 of the 33 Celac members.

At the end of the document, seven countries — Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Panama, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago — distanced themselves from the reaffirmation of the region as a Zone of Peace, condemnation of the genocide in Gaza and an end to the economic blockade against Cuba.