Pietro lends a helping hand to Castillo, the lone president

The similarities between Gustavo Petro and Pedro Castillo today have been reduced to the fact that they are both left-wing presidents in Latin America. Because his wins at the polls in Colombia on June 19 and in Peru a year ago have been described as historic. a little more. The two shook hands on Monday in Lima (Peru) as they had diametrically opposite moments. Petro, Colombian president since August 7, is living a sweet moment. He got an approval rate of 64%. For Castillo, the president of Peru, the first year seemed like an eternity. Besieged by corruption allegations and replacing up to 40 ministers In his government, barely 8% of Peruvians strongly believe in his government. Petro, who has just received the Spanish President, Pedro Sanchez, in Colombia, On Monday, he became the first president to visit Castillo.

The Colombian president wants to set the agenda for the region and lead the so-called new progressive axis for Latin America. A group that the Peruvian president felt was left out would include Chilean Gabriel Borek and Argentina’s Alberto Fernandez, who could be joined by Lula if he wins the upcoming elections in Brazil. After the private meeting with Castillo, Pietro participated in the Presidential Summit of the Andean Community, where he made clear who he wanted on his side.

There, the presidents of Ecuador and Bolivia, Guillermo Laso and Luis Arce, and Castillo himself, accepted a request from the organization to incorporate new countries such as Chile, Venezuela, and eventually Argentina. “The more votes we collect, the stronger we will be,” he warned. Both countries were already part of the group, but Chile withdrew in 1976 and Venezuela in 2006. Now it wants to pet them at home, as part of its regional policy.

With this visit, his first outside Colombia, Pietro is lending an endorsement to the weak Castillo and making up for his absence at this month’s inauguration in Bogotá. The Peruvian president was unable to attend because Congress prevented him from leaving the country while investigating allegations of corruption in his entourage.

In the private meeting between the two parties, of which only a few photos appeared, issues of bilateral trade, security and the environment were discussed. Petro called for better trade between the two countries, such as raising tariffs, but above all gave his support to the president of Peru in advancing regional integration. Castillo, immersed in an eternal political crisis, did not have the opportunity to look beyond his borders.

This first flight is meticulously done On the same day that relations between Colombia and Venezuela resume, With the swearing in of Ambassador Armando Benedetti in Caracas, after years of calm. Also in the midst of controversy over The absence of Colombia as the only member state of the Organization of American States It does not support a resolution condemning human rights violations in Nicaragua. Petro will return to Bogotá on Monday, but in the few hours of his trip to Peru he seeks to make it clear that Colombia will view the region and who it wants as traveling companions.

Subscribe here To the newsletter EL PAÍS about Colombia and receive all the informative keys to current affairs in the country.