BOGOTA, May 20 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, expressed his gratitude to Cuba and Venezuela, guarantor countries of the peace processes in his nation, for their efforts to contribute to seal an agreement between insurgent groups and the Government.
In an assessment made after a private audience with Pope Leo XIV that took place this day at the Vatican, he commented that he spoke with the Supreme Pontiff on the subject.
According to his statements, which were released in this capital by the Presidency, the National Liberation Army (ELN), the guerrilla with which the peace talks were suspended four months ago, has expressed its willingness to hold meetings in the aforementioned guarantor states.
I thank Cuba and Venezuela- specifically Cuba, which has suffered so much- for offering its territory to talk about peace.
But I believe that it is here, in the Vatican, where we can remember the theory of effective love, with its crossed powers, because obviously it is a world of power’, declared Petro in reference to the conversation with the Supreme Pontiff.
Pres Petro met with the Pope for about 20 minutes during which they discussed migration, climate crisis, and the need to put an end to conflicts in Colombia and the rest of the world.
Petro also invited the Pope to visit the neo-Granadian nation and urged him in particular to visit the region of Chiribiquete, because ‘it is the first land that emerges from the water on the planet,’ according to the president.
On his trip to Peru, I would like him to visit Colombia’, he said, while inviting him to visit Santa Marta, a city that the president described as ‘the heart of the world’.
In his statements, the president assured that the Pontiff, born in the United States and knowledgeable about Latin America, can build the bridge to make the U.S. government understand that, if it prioritizes the fight against migration, it would incur in the murder ‘of its own children’, when it should focus on curbing climate change.
As a symbolic gesture, the source added, the President gave the Holy Father a replica of the Muisca Raft, an Arhuaca backpack woven by indigenous women of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, a handmade hammock from Morroa (Sucre), and Colombian coffee, as an expression of the cultural identity, hospitality and diversity of the country. — NNN-PRENSA LATINA
