Former President Andrés Pastrana criticized former Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for backing Gustavo Petro’s candidacy.
Rodríguez Zapatero was in Bogotá this Wednesday and reaffirmed ties of friendship with Petro, whom he had met two months ago in Madrid.
“The former president Rodríguez Zapatero, a friend of Indra, comes to promote the pardon and the legalization of drug trafficking and corruption that Gustavo Petro has agreed to. Let him do it facing Colombia, at a press conference with Petro and the registrar, ”reacted the former Colombian president.
Rodríguez Zapatero recalled that in his meeting with Petro in Spain they spoke of peace. “The dialogue that I have had with Gustavo Petro and with the leaders makes me think that the raison d’être of a possible history of Petro is to walk towards equality and walk towards the end of violence. Turn Colombia into a country of definitive peace”, said the former president of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers Party).
“Peace must incorporate recognition, respect, hospitality. Making peace is reconciling and I have seen it in the thoughts and words of Gustavo Petro and his team. I am here to offer you my modest help in this process,” he added.
During his visit to Colombia, Rodríguez Zapatero also met former president Ernesto Samper Pizano, in addition to senators Roy Barreras and Iván Cepeda, and congressmen María José Pizarro and David Racero, the political figures closest to candidate Gustavo Petro.
Rodríguez Zapatero is not the only former president who supports Petro. Pepe Mujica, former president of Uruguay, also showed his support during the week.
“You have to fight for a project that is collective. In the figure of Petro there is no fundamental man, there is a fundamental cause that is collective,” said the former Uruguayan president.