2023-05-03 22:07:41
Times have changed for Latin America, and with them the political position of Pedro Sánchez towards the continent. Four years ago, the Spanish president officially recognized the opposition Juan Guaidó as president in charge of Venezuela, in opposition to Nicolás Maduro. Now, as the end of the legislature approaches, the Spanish socialist has decided to subtly approach the Venezuelan regime again (reestablishing an ambassador in Caracas) and strives to show closeness with the presidents of the left. Last week, with the official visit to Spain of the re-elected Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. This one, with that of Gustavo Petro, former left-wing guerrilla and president of Colombia since August. It is not just any visit: it is from the State, and of those Spain only grants one each year, Moncloa sources remark.
Of course, the Latin America of Sánchez’s first months in government was also very different from the current one. The main economies of the region had then (end of 2018/beginning of 2019) governments of the center right or populist right. In these years, the main countries have been turning politically to the left. Virtually everyone. In Brazil, Lula replaced Jair Bolsonaro in January. In Colombia, Gustavo Petro won the presidency from Iván Duque in June. In Chile, Gabriel Boric held the position of president in March 2022, previously held by Sebastián Piñera. In Mexico, in 2018, Andrés Manuel López Obrador replaced Enrique Peña Nieto. In Argentina, in 2019, the conservative Mauricio Macri gave way to the Peronist Alberto Fernández…
Sánchez has been keeping pace with this turnaround. At times, he has clearly taken sides. During the Brazilian elections, gave his explicit support to Lula. At other times, the changes have been more subtle. Spain has not even publicly said that it has stopped recognizing Juan Guaidó as president in charge of Venezuela, something that the European Union has done and, more recently, the opposition to Chavismo itself. Sánchez has refused to call Maduro a dictator or to say who is the legitimate president of the country.
State visit of Petro
The harmony between Sánchez and the new Ibero-American leaders is not total. Last week, he showed his disagreements with Lula regarding the war in Ukraine. The Brazilian opposes the shipment of arms and it falls short when it comes to recognizing Ukraine’s sovereignty over regions like Crimea.
For his part, Petro, before setting foot on the Adolfo Suárez airport in Madrid, praised the liberators who put an end to the “Spanish yoke”, an empire that he has repeatedly accused of being slaveholder and genocide. In a speech in the Congress of Deputies at the start of the state visit this Wednesday, Petro has recognized Spain as one of the sources from which current Colombia drinks, although he has stressed that there are others, from the indigenous to the black africa.
The president of Colombia has asked Spain, as rotating president of the Council of the European Union, to take the opportunity to lay different foundations with Latin America during the EU-Celac summit in July. “You are going to lead Europe. We are going to meet you at a summit. What are we going to say there? Where do we take those relations? Will we leave things as they are or lay a different foundation? The world demands different bases”, he said before the deputies and senators present in the Congress of Deputies.
Petro has received the order of Isabel la Católica, a necklace that represents the highest distinction awarded to foreign leaders and in which the Crown of Castile is represented.
Spain accompanying the peace process
President Gustavo Petro, a former member of the leftist M-19 guerrilla, has launched a process called “Total Peace”, for which he wants to negotiate or persecute all the armed military groups plaguing Colombia. He is not the first. In fact, the FARC signed peace with the Colombian government back in 2016. Now it wants to do the same with the National Liberation Army (ELN), it is a Marxist-Leninist “narcoguerrilla” supported by Cuba.
Sánchez promised Petro to give his full support, but for the moment he has not even designated the Spanish “companion” in the process, despite the fact that two rounds of peace negotiations have already passed. That person will probably a Foreign Office official with no current assigned position (that is, he will not be the ambassador in Bogotá nor will he be someone of renown such as Ramón Jáuregui or José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero), according to diplomatic sources familiar with the deliberations for his appointment. Something could be advanced in this sense in the meeting this Thursday between Petro and Sánchez.
The Colombian president is also playing a key role in the negotiation process between the Venezuelan government and the opposition to end the political crisis in the country. Last week he hosted the “International Conference on the Political Process in Venezuela” in Bogotá, with some twenty countries, although without any concrete results. The former president in charge Juan Guaidó took all the spotlights. He escaped on foot from Venezuela and entered Colombia without permission, like hundreds of thousands of his compatriots who were refugees in the neighboring country. He was saying that he wanted to address the Conference. But the government of Gustavo Petro decided to expel him from the country, and he went to Miami. Bogotá has reestablished diplomatic relations with Caracas and maintains a good relationship with Nicolás Maduro.
Petro’s agenda on the state visit to Spain
At the work meeting this Thursday in Moncloa, the president of the Spanish Government and the Colombian will be accompanied by a handful of their ministers. On the part of Colombia there will be, at least, those of Foreign Affairs, Mines and Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Education and Transport, and on the Spanish side their counterparts, according to the Government.
Moncloa highlights the importance of this state visit to strengthen ties with a government like Colombia heavily involved in the fight against climate change. “Either we change or we become extinct,” Petro said in Congress this Wednesday. In this sense, the rapprochement of the Government of Spain with the new governments of Latin America, especially that of Brazil, is also key. After years of Bolsonaro’s aggression against the Amazon, Brazil’s turn to the left represents a window of opportunity for Spain to promote common agendas against the climate crisis.
Madrid also wants to support the internal reforms that Colombia is carrying out, but it must recalibrate its position after the new turn of events in the country. Petro has remodeled his government and has changed seven ministers. He alleges that he needs to save his program of social reforms, only nine months after reaching the Executive power. Moncloa boasts that some of these reforms are inspired by others promoted by Spain.
State visit of Gustavo Petro to Spain
Agenda of the state visit of Colombian President Gustavo Petro to Spain (Source: Government of Colombia)
WEDNESDAY
11:00 Official Reception Ceremony at the Royal Palace of Madrid.
12:00 Visit to the Congress of Deputies
12:50 Floral Offering Ceremony in the Plaza de la Lealtad, by the President of the Republic of Colombia in homage to the Fallen by Spain to the Uprising of May 2.
14:15 Lunch offered by SS.MM. Don Felipe VI and Doña Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, King and Queen of Spain, in honor of the President of the Republic of Colombia and his distinguished wife, Verónica Alcocer García, First Lady of the Nation.
3:30 pm Meeting between King Felipe VI and the President of the Republic of Colombia at the Palacio de la Zarzuela.
16:00 Ceremony of delivery of the Golden Key of the City of Madrid by the Mayor, José Luis Martínez Almeida
8:20 p.m. Gala Dinner hosted by Felipe VI and Letizia Ortiz
THURSDAY
09:00 CEOE business forum
12:00 Meeting at the Moncloa Palace between the President of the Republic of Colombia, Gustavo Petro Urrego, and the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez.
20:00 Reception of returns at the El Pardo Palace
#Visit #Petro #Goodbye #Guaidó #Petro #Lula #Sánchez #consolidates #turn #left #IberoAmerican #policy