Madrid (EFE) Latin American country to achieve what the Colombian president calls total peace.
Petro arrived at the Barajas airport in the Spanish capital aboard a Boeing 737-700 of the Colombian Armed Forces, accompanied by his wife, Verónica Alcocer, and the heads of Foreign Affairs, Mines, Education and Commerce of Colombia.
It will not be until tomorrow, Wednesday, when Petro will officially begin the state visit, but today he will visit the sixth edition of the Services Fair in Madrid, a sample of Colombian entrepreneurs with whom he will hold a meeting.
The strengthening of relations with Spain in the economic and commercial chapter is one of the objectives of this visit, in which the process promoted by the Colombian president after he came to power to achieve what he calls total peace in his country will be very present. country.
Petro will take Spain’s full support for that wish to become a reality.
Spain, accompanying country of the peace process in Colombia
This was confirmed by sources from the Spanish Government, who advanced that the head of the Executive of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, will ratify the president all the support of his country in this regard.
Spain has the status of accompanying country in the peace process in Colombia, and Sánchez will reiterate what he conveyed in person to the Colombian president at the meeting they held last August in Bogotá: that he is counting on Spain so that the dialogue that seeks that peace obtains its fruits.
This Tuesday the Colombian Government and the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) will meet again in Havana in the third round of peace negotiations, to which both parties arrive willing to move forward but after tensions a few weeks ago by an attack against an army platoon in which ten soldiers died almost caused the rupture.
Dialogue with Venezuela and migratory problems on Petro’s agenda in Spain
Another dialogue, that of the government and the opposition in Venezuela, will be the subject of analysis by Sánchez and Petro, who called an international conference that was held in Bogotá last week with the intention of unblocking the talks between the two parties, suspended since November.
Immigration problems will also be present at the meeting days after an agreement was announced between Spain, Canada and the United States by which they will accept migrants whose cases will be managed legally through processing centers in Latin American countries such as Colombia. and Guatemala.
The fight against climate change, the energy transition and digital transformation will be other issues that Sánchez and Petro plan to address, to whom the head of government will transfer his wish that the Spanish presidency of the EU in the second half of this year serve to promote relations between European partners and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Meeting with Felipe VI and visit to Congress
The King and Queen of Spain will receive the Colombian President, Gustavo Petro, and his wife, Verónica Alcocer, tomorrow at the Royal Palace; Petro will then move to Congress, where he will address the Spanish parliamentarians in the chamber, and then he will make a floral offering in the Plaza de la Lealtad.
In the afternoon, he will hold a meeting with Felipe VI, receive the golden key to the city at the Madrid town hall and attend a gala dinner hosted by the kings of Spain, and on Thursday he will open a business forum before moving to the Palace of Moncloa, the headquarters of the Spanish Executive, to meet with Sánchez, with whom he will preside over the signing of several agreements.
Among his activities on the last day of the visit, on Friday, May 5, Gustavo Petro will visit the city of Salamanca to receive the medal from this institution, where he studied.