The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, received yesterday in Madrid the Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Marta Lucía Ramírez, with whom she inquired about the processes underway to clarify the acts of violence during the protests and discussed the second International Donors Conference for Venezuelan refugees, which will be held tomorrow and in whose preparation the two countries participated.
The meeting, the first between the two ministers since Ramírez took office as Foreign Minister last May, served “to review bilateral relations, the situation Colombia is going through and the international perspectives, and in particular those of Ibero-America, in the context of the pandemic”, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release.
During the meeting, González Laya was interested in the prospects for dialogue between the Government and the social sectors involved in the current protests, as well as “in the mission of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and in the processes underway in Colombian institutions to elucidate the violent acts registered in the framework of the protests”. She also reiterated Spain’s continued commitment to the peace process in Colombia.
The two ministers also spoke about the International Donors’ Conference in solidarity with Venezuelan migrants and refugees, to be held tomorrow under Canadian presidency and “in whose preparation both Colombia and Spain have actively participated”. The head of Spanish diplomacy once again acknowledged “Colombia’s generous policy of welcome” and reiterated “Spain’s firm disposition to continue supporting Colombia and the rest of the Latin American host countries as long as the crisis persists”.
Ramirez herself addressed these same issues during her subsequent speech at the America Forum, organized by the Europa Press news agency, in which she recognized the need to “continue dialogue, to find better peaceful solutions to all this dissatisfaction” behind the protests, “improving public policies to respond to the youth, so that there are real employment opportunities”. Likewise, she denounced that “there is, unfortunately, an interest to destabilize the country to open different options” and assured, after defending the actions of the Public Force, that “if there are individual cases of violation of the law, abuse of authority, disregard of Human Rights, immediately there must be a personal responsibility”.
The Vice President also recalled that “Colombia, despite the fact that it is not a rich country”, has assumed the “enormous challenge” of “opening the door to migration” from Venezuela, which “has expelled about 5.6 million Venezuelans”, and assured that the objective of the Government of Iván Duque is “to be able to vaccinate” against COVID-19 “the two million Venezuelans in exactly the same way as Colombians”.
The Colombian vice-president, who arrived in Madrid from Geneva, also met with members of the Congress, attended the launching of the poster of the Book Fair at the Cervantes Institute (which will have Colombia among its protagonists) and met with leaders of Colombian victims’ associations abroad and representatives of the Spain-Colombia Council Foundation. Finally, she canceled his business events scheduled for today in Madrid to return to her country due to the birth of her granddaughter.
