Colombia and Ecuador pledged to strengthen relations

The Colombian President, Gustavo Petro, “You want stability in the Ecuador”. This is how a statement from the General Secretary of Communication of the Presidency of Ecuador was headed, in which it was reported that the Colombian president “expressed his expressions of solidarity to the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso”precisely at a time when the legislative opposition submitted a request for impeachment and the Constitutional court of Ecuador prepares to examine it.

The statement indicates that the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, José Antonio Salazar, at the presentation of the credentials of the new Ecuadorian ambassador to Colombia, was the one who delivered this message to Ambassador Gonzalo Ortiz Crespo during the official ceremony. , brand new representative of Ecuador in Colombian territory.

The appointment took place in the San Carlos Palace, a building dating from the 16th century, which was the official residence of the President of Colombia until 1908, when it became the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Simón Bolívar jumped out of one of its windows when the so-called September Conspiracy happened, which was the attempted assassination of Bolívar during the night of September 25, 1828.

During the protocol, the new Ecuadorian ambassador conveyed the president’s greetings William Lasso to the Colombian president Gustavo Petro and highlighted “the fluid relationship that exists between both leaders,” the statement said. He also “expressed the personal request of the Ecuadorian president to work for the benefit of the two countries and his commitment to strengthen bilateral relations between Ecuador and Colombia”.

Jose Antonio SalazarColombia’s foreign secretary emphasized “in the special message that President Petro had for President Lasso in favor of the democratic stability of Ecuador and respect for the rule of law”, says the statement in reference to the circumstances that the country is going through with threats of destabilization, mobilizations and the early termination of the constitutional term of the President of the Republic of Ecuador.

The communiqué of the General Secretary of Communication of the Presidency of Ecuador quotes verbatim the statements of the official spokesperson of the Colombian Foreign Ministry on the desire of “President Petro (to) make very clear his commitment to the democracy of Ecuador and (to) the continuity of the Government of President Lasso.”

The last official meeting between the presidents took place on January 31, 2023 in Tulcán, a city in Ecuador 8 kilometers from the Rumichaca International Bridge, a step built over the Guáitara River that unites both countries. The meeting addressed issues of defense and national security, infrastructure and connectivity, border issues, the environment, society and culture, economy and trade, and the Binational Plan for the Border Integration Zone.

The event in the north of Ecuador and the southeast of Colombia hosted the first bilateral cabinet of the presidents William Lasso and Gustavo Petro and the eleventh between both countries. The presidents met with their ministerial teams to strengthen bilateral relations in many different areas, promote the well-being of the citizens of both countries and develop cross-border integration zones, the Ecuadorian government said in a statement released in those days.

Months ago, during the second week of December 2022, Ecuador and Colombia They reached an agreement to protect the border and carry out joint operations to combat drug trafficking. The most interesting thing was that the agreement was obtained by Twitter. The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, tweeted on Wednesday, December 14, that he would seek the support of the president of Ecuador. President Lasso responded an hour later offering his participation and then announced in another trill that he had spoken with Petro so that Ecuador and Colombia work together to secure the border and combat drug trafficking by activating bilateral mechanisms.

Keep reading: