Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio flew to Bogotá in January to attend a left-wing conference alongside members of Code Pink, the anti-war activist group that President Trump's State Department has identified as a "vector of Chinese propaganda," the New York Post reported.

De Blasio made the trip with his girlfriend, South Tucson Mayor Roxanna Valenzuela, joining roughly 90 delegates from 20 countries at an "emergency" gathering called Nuestra América. The summit was organized by Progressive International, which counts Code Pink among its member organizations.

The conference took place after the U.S. capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro that same month. Its stated purpose: to "defend democracy and peace in the Americas." In practice, the meeting produced the San Carlos Declaration, a document opposing what attendees labeled a Trump-driven "Donroe Doctrine" calling for U.S. preeminence in the Western Hemisphere.

Instagram snapshots tell the story

Valenzuela documented the trip on Instagram. Her posts show her apparently giving a middle finger to a "RIP Monroe Doctrine" effigy, posing with a smiling de Blasio and Colombian politician María José Pizarro Rodríguez, meeting with Colombia's president Gustavo Petro, and sharing scenic vacation-style photos.

Valenzuela wrote on her Instagram post:

"It was a privilege to connect with delegates from across the globe, all united in supporting Latin American sovereignty. Beyond the vital work, I've made friendships that will last a lifetime."

Neither de Blasio, Valenzuela, nor Code Pink returned the Post's requests for comment on Friday.

Code Pink's China problem

Code Pink was founded in 2002 as an anti-war group. Over the years, the organization built a reputation for theatrical protest, including a 2017 stunt in which members showed up clad in KKK costumes to antagonize then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

But the group's funding trail has drawn far more serious scrutiny. Socialist billionaire Neville Roy Singham became Code Pink's benefactor and married the group's co-founder, Jodie Evans. Singham's money helps fund what a 2023 New York Times exposé described as an extensive pro-Beijing propaganda apparatus stretching into American nonprofits.

The Trump State Department went further, identifying Code Pink and the broader "Singham network" as vectors of Chinese propaganda. That is the organization de Blasio chose to travel with to a conference in Bogotá that explicitly opposed U.S. foreign policy.

Code Pink has pushed back on the characterization. A statement on the group's website reads:

"To state it very clearly: CODEPINK is in no way funded by China, nor any other foreign government or agency. We are funded primarily by donations from concerned citizens that support peace over war."

The denial is categorical. But the State Department's assessment and the Times reporting on Singham's network raise questions that a blanket statement on a website does not resolve.

What de Blasio was doing there remains unclear

The Post's reporting does not specify what formal role, if any, de Blasio played at the Nuestra América conference. He appears in Valenzuela's social media posts. He traveled with Code Pink members. He was present at a summit that drew delegates from 20 countries and produced a declaration aimed squarely at U.S. policy in the Americas.

What he said at the conference, or whether he spoke at all, is not detailed. He did not respond to the Post's inquiry. The exact dates of the trip and the specific venue in Bogotá also remain unreported.

What is clear is the company he kept. Progressive International organized the event. Code Pink participated. The conference framed American influence in the hemisphere as a threat to be resisted. And de Blasio, a former mayor of the largest city in the United States, was there for it.

A pattern, not an accident

De Blasio's political career in New York was defined by a persistent leftward lean, on policing, on housing, on his sympathies toward left-wing movements in Latin America. His attendance at a conference organized by groups flagged for foreign propaganda ties is not some bolt from the blue. It fits a trajectory.

The question is not whether de Blasio has the right to attend a conference in Colombia. He does. The question is what it says about his judgment, and his political loyalties, that he chose to stand alongside an organization the U.S. government has flagged as a conduit for Beijing's messaging, at an event built around opposing American foreign policy, weeks after the capture of a dictator.

Valenzuela called it a privilege. Taxpayers who spent eight years under de Blasio's leadership in New York might use a different word.

When a former American mayor travels abroad with a group his own government labels a propaganda vector, and nobody involved will answer questions about it, the silence tells you more than any declaration ever could.