Colombian President Gustavo Petro has begun a state visit to Spain to seek support for his peace plan for the South American country while urging for greater action against climate change from Europe.
King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia greeted Petro and his wife in Madrid, where they will later attend a state dinner hosted by the Spanish royals.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s Socialist leader, is a supporter of Petro, an ex-rebel who became Colombia’s first leftist President last year.
One of the main topics on Petro’s agenda is his peace process with the National Liberation Army (ELN), a communist-inspired guerrilla organization still active after the dissolution of FARC, a group which spent decades pursuing rebellion.
Colombia’s government and the ELN started talks in November, 2022 shortly after Petro was elected President. Petro has called the talks a cornerstone of his effort to resolve a conflict that dates back to the 1960s.
Starting in July, Spain is set to hold the European Union’s rotating presidency, a six-month period in which Madrid aims to revitalize Europe’s relations with Latin America. That includes plans by Spain to hold a summit between Latin America and the EU in the early days of its presidency.
The Colombian President started his speech before the joint session of parliament by recalling the importance of his early reading of Don Quijote and the role of Spain in Colombia’s cultural imagination. However, he quickly moved on to warning of what he called the existential threat to humanity posed by global climate change.
The environmental message was timely for Spain’s lawmakers, who are managing a prolonged drought after a record-hot 2022.
“We are on the brink of extinction or change. There is no time to waste. This is no longer just a political debate, it’s an order given to us by science. You can believe or not believe as if this were a religious question, but this is still science.”
Gustavo Petro
Lawmakers from Spain’s far-right Vox party left the chamber before his speech in protest against the leftist leader. Vox supporters held a small protest outside the parliament.
The visit to Europe comes two weeks after Petro traveled to Washington to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden amid deep differences on drug policy and Venezuela. However, they found some common ground on their concern for the adverse effects of climate change.
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Anna Ayuso, senior researcher for Latin America at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB), told reporters, “It is a step forward for Spain, which is taking the initiative regarding a certain lack of action by Europe in this matter.”
Spain is the leading European recipient of Latin American migration; about 500,000 Colombians live in Spain, and in recent months it has sponsored specific initiatives to accept migrants from American countries in humanitarian situations. One of these initiatives was offering nationality to 100 Nicaraguan opponents exiled by Daniel Ortega in February 2023.
The Colombian leader will sit down with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Thursday, May 4, 2023, when he will attend a meeting with the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations.
The confederation is the country’s leading business group, representing 2 million companies and self-employed entrepreneurs. Petro is expected to push his economic agenda, particularly in green energy and digitization.
“Petro wants to present Colombia before Europe not only as a country committed to peace but also a stable one that deserves the trust of investors,” Ayuso opined.
Petro is slated to visit Salamanca University, where he studied, on Friday May 5, 2023.
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