Petro before the UN: "The war on drugs has failed" 5:42
(CNN Spanish) --
Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia, gave a very striking speech in his first statement before a United Nations General Assembly.
It was an impassioned reflection —unusual for Colombian presidents at the UN— in which he criticized the war on drugs and the handling of the climate crisis, defended the environment and called for a change of approach against drug trafficking achieve peace from social justice.
The jungle was the axis of his speech, in which he condemned war, addiction to money and drugs, and hypocritical speeches.
These are the curiosities of Petro's speech before the UN.
1. How many words Petro spoke
Without counting the formal greetings, it was a speech of
2,166 words
2. How long was the speech
Without counting the formal greetings, the speech lasted
19:48 minutes
(The longest speech delivered in the General Assembly was by Fidel Castro in 1960: 269 minutes).
3. The most mentioned words by Petro
29 times
jungle
20 times
war
14 times
drug
14 times
life
14 times
power
13 times
plant
12 times
climate
12 times
addiction
11 times
oil
10 times
humanity
9 times
peace
9 times
poison
7 mentions of the
Amazon
7 times
destruction
5 times
my country
4 times
cocaine
4 times
Latin America
4 times
failure
advertising
4. The word he didn't say once
He didn't say "Colombia".
She always spoke of "my country".
5. He did not mention other rulers
He stressed that the text does not say specific names or assign individual responsibilities, but rather speaks of societies and countries.
The 5 strongest phrases that President Gustavo Petro spoke at the UN
6. Petro only said "United States" once
Petro, a leftist politician, has said he wants a new page in relations with the United States.
Although he criticizes the fight against drug trafficking—the United States finances much of it in Colombia—he only mentioned the United States once in his inaugural speech and once in this UN speech.
Both times on those killed by overdose.
7. The speech was written by himself
The presidents have a team of communications and speechwriters, but Gustavo Petro is known for consulting little with his advisers and managing his Twitter account personally.
According to Laura Sarabia, head of the Presidency's Cabinet, Petro wrote the speech "in his own handwriting."
Sarabria shared a photo of Petro, who often makes impromptu speeches and has outstanding rhetorical ability, writing on a piece of paper on a plane.
A historic speech by President @petrogustavo at the United Nations!
Always attentive and taking care of every word.
In his own handwriting he wrote his defense of the Amazon Jungle and TOTAL PEACE.
pic.twitter.com/QI1eRjV18z
– Laura Sarabia (@laurisarabia) September 20, 2022
8. The reference to Garcia Marquez
"I come from the land of yellow butterflies and magic," Petro said.
The yellow butterflies are a well-remembered figure from
One Hundred Years of Solitude
that became a common allusion to Garcia Marquez's literature and, by default, to Colombian culture.
9. It is the most viewed speech before the UN on the YouTube channel of the Colombian Presidency
On the YouTube channel of the Colombian Presidency, created in 2010, there are speeches by Juan Manuel Santos, Iván Duque and now Gustavo Petro.
With 415,000 views at the time of writing this note, it is the most viewed speech in that space.
10. What are the other two most beautiful countries?
"I come from one of the three most beautiful countries on Earth," says the first sentence of Petro's speech, which was widely commented on in networks.
And there remains a great unknown that several were made on Twitter: what are the other two?
"I come from one of the three most beautiful countries in the world" says President Petro of Colombia.
Intense international debate opens, what would the other two be?
🙄😉
– Claudio Fuentes S. (@profeclaudio_cl) September 20, 2022
The answer is on Petro's Twitter account.
In August, she shared a piece of
El Tiempo
that alluded to a money.co.uk ranking (and shared by Forbes magazine) on the countries with the most natural beauty in the world.
The ranking is made by Salman Haqqi, personal finance editor of
money,
based on a score out of 10 in which he took into account seven factors: volcanoes, mountains, coral reefs, protected areas, coastline, tropical forests and glaciers.
The top 3 is like this:
Indonesian:
7.77 points
New Zealand:
7.27 points
Colombia:
7.16 points
So that classification shared by Petro —from a Colombian media outlet, which quoted a US economic magazine, which in turn referenced a ranking from a British financial guide portal— is an arbitrary list made not by a natural scientist, but by a financial journalist.
Watch Petro's full speech
Gustavo Petro