Petro and Sánchez, during the press conference in La Moncloa.OSCAR DEL POZO (AFP)
Pedro Sánchez and Gustavo Petro have very different political and personal trajectories, but they transmit an evident harmony.
This was the case when the Spaniard visited Bogotá, in August of last year, and it has been repeated in the joint appearance in Madrid when the Colombian has returned that visit, which has brought him to Spain for three days.
"We are two progressive governments that have come together to open progressive paths for humanity," Petro declared in La Moncloa, while Sánchez agreed.
The two agree on many points, especially the ecological transition agenda in the face of climate change and economic measures —the Colombian defended with Yolanda Díaz in the front row the Spanish labor reform as a model to apply in his country— although there is a clear distance in their positions on the war in Ukraine.
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Gustavo Petro: "Change is more difficult than we thought"
Sánchez also supports Petro's peace strategy in Colombia, will contribute a million euros to help and is willing to study that the EU remove the ELN from the list of terrorist groups if it lays down its weapons, but always at the rate set by the Government Colombian, as explained by the Spanish.
“Spain shows our absolute willingness to help in any way we can, I am grateful that President Petro recognizes Spain as a country that can participate in the negotiation process.
We are at the disposal of the Colombian government to speak with other European presidents”, said Sánchez.
Petro took the opportunity to recall that one of the top leaders of the ELN in the seventies and eighties was a Spanish priest, Father Pérez.
But above all, the two are united by the political intention of using the EU-CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) summit in July, the first since 2015, which Sánchez is preparing ahead of time as one of the milestones of the Spanish presidency, to make a radical turn in the relationship between two regions with many historical and economic ties, although in recent years they have moved away while China occupied more and more space in Latin America as a great investor, lender and client.
“The summit should not be just another meeting, it should imply a milestone, a phase change.
That Latin America ceases to be the site for the production of raw materials, of an extractive nature, that we can enter into a common productive platform with Europe.
That we produce here and there, that we share the potential of clean energy in Latin America,
the largest in the world, to make us partners in a more productive and clean world, decarbonized, essential for the human species to continue to exist”, Petro summarized.
“We both share the importance of the region having its own international voice, the summit can mean a reinforcement of Colombia's political relationship with the EU”, Sánchez concluded.
Petro recalled that in his meeting with the US president, Joe Biden, he talked about changing the foreign debt of some countries for climate action.
Sánchez has welcomed the proposal with enthusiasm.
the summit can mean a reinforcement of Colombia's political relationship with the EU”, Sánchez concluded.
Petro recalled that in his meeting with the US president, Joe Biden, he talked about changing the foreign debt of some countries for climate action.
Sánchez has welcomed the proposal with enthusiasm.
the summit can mean a reinforcement of Colombia's political relationship with the EU”, Sánchez concluded.
Petro recalled that in his meeting with the US president, Joe Biden, he talked about changing the foreign debt of some countries for climate action.
Sánchez has welcomed the proposal with enthusiasm.
Petro, who brought the left to power last year for the first time in the history of Colombia, acknowledged this Wednesday in an interview with this newspaper that the change, and the reforms that he wants to promote in his country, are turning out to be "more difficult". of what they thought.
In his speech before the Spanish Congress, the Colombian leader warned against his opponents in Colombia and climate change deniers.
The Vox deputies stood up to the Colombian head of state, whom the leader of the formation Santiago Abascal branded as a "terrorist".
Later they asked him about his statements before arriving in Spain, in which he said that Colombia had got rid of the Spanish yoke two centuries ago.
Petro did not take back his words, as the Spanish right-wing parties have requested, but reiterated that this is a part of history that cannot be erased.
“When we studied high school and they gave us history class (...) they taught us that feudalism was a system of domination.
(...) Some were the servants and others the lords of the land.
The movie [for “series”]
Games of Thrones
shows a little bit of what he was like.
It was a yoke society, that's why the towns rose up.
That type of relationship that was overcome a long time ago is the one that led to America, I don't see it being problematic to say.
The revolutions freed us from the feudal yoke”.
Petro also took the opportunity to recall, in a country like Spain that has often been the gateway for drugs to Europe from Colombia, that the war on drugs has been a complete failure and we must think of other ways.
In the joint declaration signed by the two presidents, it is stated that "Spain takes note of Colombia's initiatives that intend to rethink the approach to the fight against drugs and drug trafficking", but without further details.
Sánchez did not want to enter this debate, but Petro did do so fully, with a lot of data and a clear political position.
“Fentanyl is killing 100,000 people in the US.
It is a tragic subject.
It reflects the failure of the war on drugs that began against marijuana, but ended with 100,000 deaths from another drug in the US.
That's twice Vietnam.
One million Latin Americans have died around the clandestinity of drugs that today, compared to fentanyl, we would call soft drugs.
One million Americans, mostly blacks, all poor, who have gone to prison for drugs.
Today there are armed groups much more powerful than Pablo Escobar.
Private, multinational armies that build clandestine cocaine routes.
The war in Ukraine, Iraq, and Syria together do not reach the death toll of the war on drugs.
It is the failure of a policy that has generated the greatest violence known, ”he assured.
Today there are armed groups much more powerful than Pablo Escobar.
Private, multinational armies that build clandestine cocaine routes.
The war in Ukraine, Iraq, and Syria together do not reach the death toll of the war on drugs.
It is the failure of a policy that has generated the greatest violence known, ”he assured.
Today there are armed groups much more powerful than Pablo Escobar.
Private, multinational armies that build clandestine cocaine routes.
The war in Ukraine, Iraq, and Syria together do not reach the death toll of the war on drugs.
It is the failure of a policy that has generated the greatest violence known, ”he assured.
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