Petro compares himself to Don Quixote and calls to combat climate change in the Spanish parliament

( Spanish) — The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, spoke this Wednesday in the Cortes Generales in Madrid as part of his state visit to Spain. An appointment that he took place in the Chamber of the Congress of Deputies and that he took advantage of to highlight the links that unite both countries through reviewing the past and resorting to the common future.

Among other links, Petro pointed out an emotional component: passion. According to the Colombian leader, this is a “brand that all Latin Americans share.” […] and that it comes from here”.

Looking back, the president of Colombia turned to Spanish literature and compared himself to the figure of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes to evoke his political past: “Somehow I became a Quixote. He didn’t ride. In Colombia it is difficult to ride. Bolívar’s horsemen were great horsemen who sought freedom. We really walked: up, down in the high mountains trying also to find justice, to find love, to change the world”.

The last half of his speech was dedicated to sending an alert message to the deputies about climate change: “Science says that we are at the beginning of the times of extinction.” A forceful message with which she urged the public in the Chamber of the Congress of Deputies to “find the points and public policies that allow humanity to continue to exist and life to continue to exist.”

The sit-in of the extreme right

Before his intervention began, the 52 deputies of the far-right parliamentary formation, Vox, left the Congress of Deputies as a sign of protest.

As justified by the leader of the formation, Santiago Abascal, they left parliament because they consider Petro “a key piece of the Sao Paulo Forum, which is the international organization of communism.”

In addition, Abascal pointed out his past as an M-19 guerrilla, assuring that “it is stained with blood, a past that has left pain, that has left people dead in Colombia and […] of which he has not repented.”

Petro acknowledged having joined the M-19. In 1985 he was arrested for carrying weapons, for which he was imprisoned for 16 months.