The Diplomat
Queen Letizia began her cooperation trip to Colombia yesterday in Cartagena de Indias, where she visited the Spanish Cooperation Training Center and two projects funded by Spain, the drinking water supply and sanitation program in the neighborhood of Villahermosa and the Workshop School on cultural heritage and restoration for young people at risk of exclusion.
Doña Letizia arrived late Monday afternoon at Rafael Núñez International Airport in Cartagena de Indias, where she was received by the First Lady, Verónica Alcocer; the Spanish Ambassador to Colombia, Joaquín de Arístegui; the Governor of Bolívar, Vicente Blel; and the Mayor of Cartagena de Indias, William Dau, among other Colombian authorities and staff of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID). The Queen is accompanied by the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Pilar Cancela.
Yesterday began at the Spanish Cooperation Training Center, where the Queen unveiled a plaque commemorating her visit and held a meeting with the staff of the Spanish Cooperation Office (OCE) of the AECID in Colombia and the Training Center.
Afterwards, Doña Letizia visited the drinking water supply and sanitation program for 165,000 people in the Villahermosa neighborhood, financed by the Water and Sanitation Cooperation Fund. The Queen was received by the First Lady, with whom she toured the premises and visited a metropolitan school that benefits from the program, where she spoke with some of the students.
The day in Cartagena concluded with a visit to a workshop school on cultural heritage and restoration for young people at risk of exclusion, created with the support of Spanish Cooperation in 1992 and which depends entirely on the Colombian government. The Queen and Alcocer then went to the Baluarte de Santa Catalina, one of the emblematic monuments of the city, whose restoration was carried out by young people from this workshop school.
The trip will conclude today in Cali, where Doña Letizia will visit a cooperative for the cultivation and sale of coffee in the hands of former rebel fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), an initiative funded by the EU. The Queen will also visit another gardening workshop school.
Colombia has been a priority country for Spanish Cooperation for thirty years. Spain accompanies Colombia’s efforts to implement the peace agreements, focusing on strengthening the social rule of law, sustainable economic development, social cohesion, gender equality and the fight against violence against women.
This is the eighth cooperation trip made by the Queen, who has recovered a custom started by Queen Sofia in 1997. Previously, Doña Letizia traveled to Honduras and El Salvador (2015), Senegal (2017), Dominican Republic and Haiti (2018), Mozambique (2019), again Honduras (2020), Paraguay (late 2021) and Mauritania (May 2022). The purpose of these visits is to support Spanish Cooperation, to learn first-hand about the work carried out by AECID or Spanish NGOs and to verify the effectiveness of the projects financed by Spain and their direct impact on the beneficiaries.
