We are in Latin America as part of the delegation accompanying President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his official visit to the region, and our first stop is Colombia, a country that always reminds me of a sad, unfinished story.This big, beautiful country located in the north of Latin America is like a road for Latin American democracy and prosperity. It is also reminiscent of Latin American revolutionary leader Simon Bolivar's story that explains why this road remains uncompleted. Bolivar's dream of a united Latin America has always existed on this continent, sometimes as a legend, sometimes as a political resistance movement and sometimes as a ruling political will. But none of this was what Bolivar wanted to achieve. In 1819, the Republic of Columbia (Gran Columbia) was founded, encompassing today's territories of Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, and Bolivar was brought to the presidency with the title of "Libertador" (savior). This republic did not last long, and the states that constituted the union were completely divided by war in 1830. Bolivar passed away the same year after witnessing the collapse of his utopian dream of unity. The struggle, which was waged by Bolivar against Spanish colonialism and Great Britain's escalating colonial politics, is still an important reality in Latin America, and all political movements are in various ways affected by the Bolivarian tradition. On the other hand, this tradition has also caused some leaders, such as the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who claimed to have established a Bolivarian Republic in Venezuela, to exaggerate populism and to miss a great opportunity. Even though populism was split into different movements in Latin America, they still shared common characteristics. The most obvious one is the perspective (which was mainly formulated by Peruvian political leader Haya de la Torre) that argues for an alliance of the proletariat, peasantry and bourgeoisie, forming a government with reconciliation among the social strata against the ruling collaborative oligarchy, and reconstructing the state against neoliberal policies. However, this perspective failed at the international level, never going beyond the unified nation-state that was envisaged by Bolivar. For instance, Chavez failed to establish a new regional economy by using the country's oil revenues of more than $30 billion effectively, and for me, Chavez's Bolivarian endeavors ended when he died. Chavez could not be as influential as Ho Chi Minh was in the 1960s, because the equation of the 21st century was very different from that of the 1960s. This equation said that the self-contained economies of nation-states would fail; this is why Chavez failed to be as influential as Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam. Because of this failure, Chavez considered former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a revolutionary leader and mass murderer Assad as a leader against imperialism. However, this period has come to an end. Latin America's escape from dictatorships is not possible with the new Peronist paramilitary dictatorships. New civil commotions that also include the Church have always been determinant in the region, and it is controversial how much the initiative that was begun by former Brazilian President Lula da Silva is linked with traditional leftism. The rise of Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of Turkey and the Middle East are occurring in the same conjuncture, and with the same political motives as that of Latin America, but they are undertaken by very different political figures.It is no longer important to attribute these political figures to the leftist or rightist norms of the past, as old definitions are coming to an end. From this point of view, Erdoğan's visit to Latin America is important. This is because Erdoğan is a leader who strongly objects to dictators such as Assad who produces terrorism and uses chemical weapons against his own people, and against coup-maker dictators such as Egypt's Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. He is also a leader who has always criticized the structure of the U.N. Security Council, which is composed of the five main victors of World War II (China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S.), saying that the world is bigger than five. In this way, Erdoğan wants democracy and prosperity for all colonized countries of the past, from Latin America to Africa in a new world order. Therefore, it is important that Turkey enters into a new period with Latin American countries under Erdoğan's presidency. In this regard, Erdoğan's visit to Colombia, Cuba, Mexico and to other Latin American countries, and the economic and commercial relations that Turkey will develop with these countries are significant steps that will reshape the economy and politics of the 21st century. Let me say this, from Colombia to the whole world: Bolivar's dream of an independent and prosperous unified Latin America, which can steer its own fate, will come true in this century and Turkey will never doubt it.