Hay Festival Cartagena 2026

The 21st century is bearing witness to very agressive forms of imperialism that challenge the established order and the limits of international law, from military interventions to hard economic and geopolitical preassures on countries. Analyzing these dynamics is crucial for understanding how the power relations are being reshaped in an increasingly complex global context. With the participation of Daniel Alarcón (Peru/United States), whiter and journalist who addresses issues such as migration, identity and conflict from a narrative perspective in his books and in Radio Ambulante Estudios; Mireille Fanon (France), renowned politica analyst specializing in international relations and human rights; and Nesrine Malik (Sudan/United Kingdom), journalist and columnist known for her critical essays about global politics and contemporary society. Moderated by Mario Arriagada.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish will be offered

Omri Boehm, Pankaj Mishra, and Philippe Sands join Héctor Abad Faciolince to explore how the Holocaust and colonial memory collide with current legal and moral crises, and what it means to uphold humanistic universalism amid polarizing debates about genocide, xenophobia, and international law. Boehm is an Israeli philosopher and author of Radical Universalism: Beyond Identity, a philosophical critique that draws on Kant to reclaim the radical potential of Enlightenment humanism; in his earlier book Haifa Republic: A Democratic Future for Israel he proposed a binational federal model for Israel and Palestine. Sands (United Kingdom) is an international lawyer and acclaimed writer known for works such as East West Street, in which he examines the Holocaust, justice, and the legacies of the darkest chapters of the twentieth century. The Indian essayist and novelist Mishra is the author of The Age of Anger: A History of the Present, tracing links between contemporary violence and the rise of individualism and capitalism, and the recent The World After Gaza: A Short History, which analyzes Western complicity, colonial legacies, and moral fault lines in the aftermath of the Gaza conflict.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Journalist and former editor-in-chief of El País, Javier Moreno has published ¿Quién manda aquí? La impotencia ante la espiral de violencia en América Latina, a major analysis of the tentacles of state and criminal power in Latin America and of the reach of criminal governance that is now taking hold across the region. Taking part will Moreno, alongside Ana María Salazar, former Assistant Secretary of Defense during President Bill Clinton’s administration and now a security analyst and commentator in Mexico; Érika Rodríguez Pinzón, university professor, security expert, and Director of the Carolina Foundation in Spain; and Almudena Bernabéu, International lawyer with a long career in the fields of transitional justice, international criminal law and human rights, and Executive Director of the Guernica 37 Centre. The conversation will be moderated by Fernando Carrillo, former Minister of Justice and former Attorney General of Colombia, now Vice President of PRISA Group.

All events on Sunday, February 1st will be free for people with ID from the department of Bolívar. Complimentary tickets can be requested —up to capacity— at the box office of the Hay Festival (Centro de Convenciones) showing your identification on the same day the event is taking place.