Colombian president's Spain visit begins with controversy

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - A visit to Spain by Colombia’s president began with controversy as the right-wing Vox party protested an address by Gustavo Petro by leaving Congress on Wednesday.

Vox lawmakers left the chamber right before Petro began his speech but the rest of the deputies stood up and applauded.

Vox leader Santiago Abascal announced earlier the decision not to attend the address after Petro made a "Spanish yoke" comment during a speech before traveling to Spain.

On the eve of his first official visit to Spain, the Colombian president praised those who fought for independence and said: "They supported the word freedom without really understanding if freedom consisted of freeing themselves from the Spanish yoke of the Crown, of dethroning kings and dukes and princes, of ending privileges that separated some human beings of others, to put an end to a productive regime of slaveholders who condemned the black man ... to be slaves for perpetuity."

Fifty protesters gathered at the doors of Congress to protest Petro's visit that was called by Disenso, the Vox foundation.

Abascal denounced the institutional reception of the Colombian president and called him a "narco-terrorist."

"Many Spaniards do not know who has put on the red carpet today. Petro is to Colombia what (Arnaldo) Otegi is to Spain," he told reporters, referencing a former ETA terror group member.

The ETA killed 829 people and injured thousands more from 1968 to 2010 in its fight for an independent Basque Country in Spain.