The King attends the inauguration of Santiago Peña in Paraguay

2023-08-16 01:33:22

King Felipe VI ended his summer vacation in Mallorca on Monday to travel to Paraguay for the inauguration of Santiago Peña as the new president of the South American country. A displacement in which he took the opportunity to also inaugurate the new headquarters of the Spanish embassy. And he did it in what is his first visit to the country since he acceded to the throne in 2014.

Don Felipe, accompanied by the Secretary of State for Ibero-America and the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, Juan Fernández Trigo, arrived in Asunción on Monday afternoon, where he was received by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Julio César Arriola, in addition to by the mayor) of Asunción, Óscar Rodríguez; the ambassador of Spain, Carmen Castiella, and other local authorities.

During his first day there, the King went to the Palacio de López, where he held a meeting with the outgoing president of Paraguay Mario Abdo, together with the Spanish and Paraguayan delegations that accompanied him. Immediately afterwards, he went to the residence of the elect, Santiago Peña, with whom he also met.

And as a climax to his official acts on Monday, the King participated in the informal dinner offered by Abdo in honor of the heads of state attending the Presidential Inauguration ceremony, which was also attended by Alberto Fernández, President of Argentina; Lula da Silva, President of Brazil; Luis Lacalle, President of Uruguay, and Gabriel Boric, President of Chile, among many other leaders from different parts of the world. In total, representatives from more than one hundred countries gathered in Paraguay for the ceremony.

And it was yesterday morning when Felipe VI attended the inauguration of Santiago Peña at the Palacio de López. A ceremony that includes a military parade. Once finished, both Peña and his wife, Leticia Ocampos, greeted the Spanish Monarch and the other six heads of state who traveled to Paraguay.

After this, the King traveled to the new headquarters of the Spanish embassy in Paraguay, which he inaugurated, and held a brief meeting there with a representative of the Spanish community residing in the country.

In the afternoon, the King attended another lunch offered by the already new Paraguayan president, which put an end to this new official trip of Felipe VI, the first in Paraguay as King. Although, yes, previously, in 2013, also in August, he was as Prince in the oath of the then new president, Horacio Cartes.

Since January 1996, still as Prince of Asturias, Felipe VI has already witnessed a total of 81 inaugurations, the latter being the fifth in Paraguay in the country. As Prince there were a total of 69 and as King, twelve. Guatemala, in 1996 was his first contact with these acts.

This inauguration is the only official act that Don Felipe had marked on his agenda this week, in which, in addition, he will accompany Princess Leonor tomorrow as she enters the Zaragoza Military Academy.

In principle, as the negotiations to form a government progress and after the constitution of the Cortes, the new –or new– president of Congress will transfer to the King the parties with representation for the round of consultations, which could start next week.