Presidents of Colombia and Chile agree to deepen Latin American integration

The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, and his Chilean counterpart, Gabriel Boric, met today, Monday, for the first time and agreed to continue Latin American integration, in addition to addressing Colombia’s peace process, of which Chile was a guarantor.

“We have particularly talked about revitalizing the Andean Community, an issue that was built several decades ago between our countries, which had (…) a crucial role in the planning of the industrialization processes of our countries,” stated Petro regarding the group then made up of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

“They left that pact (…) Venezuela and Chile”, he said, so “it was weakened”, but an institutionality is still maintained “that in my opinion must be strengthened”.

“We have invited Chile to look again at the issue of the Andean Community”, said Petro, also mentioning the strengthening of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

The Colombian president met privately with his Chilean counterpart at the Casa de Nariño, the seat of government, in Bogota, where both issued a joint statement.

Petro commented that another important topic of the meeting was peace, as the southern country was the guarantor of the process initiated between the Colombian government and the guerrilla during the administration of the then Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018).

For his part, Boric exposed that the meeting was “pleasant, deep” and that they addressed different issues on the bilateral agenda.

“The Latin American heart begins again to beat together,” he said about integration and that the peoples of each nation improve their quality of life.

“We have talked about the challenging peace process that Colombia has carried out and all the lessons to be learned in this process (…) we have expressed our willingness to continue collaborating,” Boric said.

The Chilean president said that the authorities of both countries would continue to work together in the fight against transnational crimes such as drug trafficking and human trafficking.

Petro was sworn in on Sunday as constitutional president of Colombia; an act carried out in the historic Plaza de Bolivar in Bogota in the presence of several Latin American leaders, including the Chilean president.

With information from Xinhua

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