(CNN Spanish) – Colombia’s President, Gustavo Petro, spoke this Wednesday at the Cortes Generales in Madrid as part of his state visit to Spain. He was appointed to the House of Representatives and took the opportunity to highlight the bonds that unite the two countries by reviewing the past and taking refuge in the common future.
Among other connections, Pietro pointed out an emotional component: passion. According to the Colombian leader, this is “a brand that all Latin Americans share.” […] And that comes from here.”
Image copyright OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP / Getty Images Image caption Colombian President Gustavo Petro signs the Book of Honor issued by the Spanish Congress before addressing the Spanish Parliament in Madrid on May 3, 2023 (OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP / Getty Images)
Looking back, the president of Colombia turned to Spanish literature and compared himself to Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote to evoke his political past: “In a way I became a Quixote. I didn’t ride. It’s hard to ride in Colombia. Bolivar’s cavaliers were great knights striving for freedom. We really walked.” : up and down the high mountains we also try to find justice, to find love, to change the world.”
He devoted the latter half of his speech to sending lawmakers a wake-up call about climate change: “Science says we are at the beginning of an era of extinction.” A powerful message in which he urged the audience in the House of Representatives to “find points and general policies that allow humanity to continue to exist and to continue life.”
far-right sit-in
Before starting his intervention, the 52 deputies of the far-right parliamentary formation Fox, left the House of Representatives as a sign of protest.
As justified by the leader of the formation, Santiago Abascal, they left parliament because they considered Petro “a key piece of the São Paulo Forum, which is the International Organization of Communists.”
In addition, Abascal referred to his past as an M-19 guerrilla, stressing that he was “blood-stained, a past that left behind pain, that took the lives of people in Colombia and […] which he did not repent of.
Petro admitted to joining M-19. In 1985 he was arrested for carrying a weapon, for which he was in prison for 16 months.
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