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Salamanca (Spain) – The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, received this Friday the highest distinction from the University of Salamanca, where he studied, in the act that ended his state visit to Spain.
“Look at the importance of this site, of this university,” Petro said upon receiving the Medal from the University of Salamanca in the auditorium of the historic center, where he completed a doctorate in development of new trends in business administration after studying economics at the External University of Bogota.
“Hopefully the generations of young people, boys and girls, who, like a while ago, went out to change the world, which I think today is more than absolutely necessary,” he begged, before an audience in which there were many young Colombians, come out of here. of the 600 who study there. “I am therefore grateful for the decoration that the university gives me, I will take it close to me,” said this former guerrilla, the first left-wing president of Colombia since 2022.
– Nightmares with Franco –
Before moving to Salamanca, in an act in Madrid, Petro explained that he has suffered “nightmares” sleeping in what was the residence of the dictator Francisco Franco during his state visit to Spain, where he arrived on Tuesday. “Last night, sleeping in the house where Franco slept, my head was filled with nightmares,” Petro confessed, speaking at a session of the Nueva Economía Forum, a debate organization.
As is customary on state visits, Petro stays at the Royal Palace of El Pardo, which Franco, the dictator who ruled Spain from 1939 until his death in 1975, made his official residence on the outskirts of Madrid. To praise Franco’s supposed inexhaustible capacity for work and his carelessness for the Spanish, there was an urban legend that spoke of “the little light of Pardo”, that light in his office in the palace that was on day and night.
Ordered to be built by Carlos V in the 16th century, the palace is surrounded by a “natural space of extraordinary value, considered the most important Mediterranean forest in the Community of Madrid,” says its website. Petro offered a reception in this place on Thursday afternoon for the King of Spain, Felipe VI, who in turn had invited him to a gala dinner on Wednesday at the Royal Palace, in the historic center of Madrid.
In addition, Petro met on Thursday with the president of the Spanish government, the socialist Pedro Sánchez.
– Drones against drug trafficking –
Petro signed an agreement this Friday with the aeronautical construction company Airbus that “will allow the construction of parts for drones and high-tech aircraft,” the Colombian Presidency tweeted. In his appearance at the forum this Friday, Petro spoke about these drones, intended to be used in territories “that remain under the control of what I call mafia powers, which have spread throughout the Americas, Europe and the world.” .
Petro also spoke of the negotiations between the Venezuelan opposition and the government of Nicolás Maduro, in which he has been involved to bring positions closer. The Colombian president was cautious about the possibility that progress could be made on the plan agreed in Bogotá, where 20 countries, including the United States, supported easing sanctions against the Venezuelan government if it commits to holding elections with guarantees for the opposition in 2024.
“From there to doing it, we’ll see, now we have to go see if it’s possible,” said Petro, who criticized international sanctions against Venezuela. “That is the effect of the sanction, millions of people literally condemned to misery and hunger (…) Here the press tells him: ‘no, it is that the dictatorships of the regime took them out’. No, hunger took them out he continued.
Colombia has received in recent years almost 2.5 million Venezuelans fleeing poverty in their country, according to official Colombian figures.
