The Diplomat
King Philip VI will attend next August 7 in Bogota to the acts of transmission of the presidential command to the president-elect of Colombia, Gustavo Petro.
In addition to attending the inauguration, the King will hold meetings with the outgoing and incoming presidents of Colombia, Ivan Duque and Petro himself, as well as with the Spanish community, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release. Philip VI will travel accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares.
The attendance of the King and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to the inauguration of President Petro “reaffirms Spain’s will to continue strengthening the solid bonds of friendship that unite the two nations, accompanied by shared values that benefit our citizens,” the Ministry added.
The King represents Spain in the inaugurations of Ibero-American presidents, a task that Don Felipe has been assuming since 1996 when he was still Prince of Asturias. This is the tenth participation of Philip VI in the inauguration of an Ibero-American president since he has been King and the fourth so far in 2022, since he was in 2018 in that of the Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador; in 2019 in that of the Panamanian Laurentino Cortizo; in 2020 in those of Uruguay’s Luis Lacalle Pou and Bolivia’s Luis Arce; in 2021 in those of Ecuador’s Guillermo Lasso Mendoza and Peru’s Pedro Castillo; and in 2022 in those of Honduras’ Xiomara Castro, Chile’s Gabriel Boric and Costa Rica’s Rodrigo Chaves.
On June 19, leftist Gustavo Petro defeated rightist Rodolfo Hernández Suárez in the second round of the presidential elections. The Democratic Center, of the still president Iván Duque, had suffered a heavy defeat in the first round. After the electoral victory, the Spanish Government congratulated Gustavo Petro, to whom it conveyed its desire to “work closely with the new Colombian Government in the construction of social, fair and sustainable policies, as well as in the construction of peace and the respect and protection of the environment”.
Gustavo Petro made a visit to Spain last January, still as a presidential candidate, in which he was received by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, at the PSOE headquarters in Ferraz Street, and by the Vice President, Yolanda Díaz, in his official office. That visit was harshly criticized by the Popular Party.
The current Colombian ambassador to Spain, Luis Guillermo Plata, resigned from his post immediately after Petro’s victory, 16 months after relieving Carolina Barco at the head of the Embassy. The resignation will take effect on August 6, one day before the inauguration of the new president. In the meantime, and pending the appointment of the new ambassador, the minister-counselor, Victoria Pauwels, will remain in charge of the Embassy as Chargé d’Affaires.
