King Felipe VI will travel this Friday to Cali (Colombia) along with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, to attend the inauguration of the new Colombian president, Abelardo de la Espriella. The ceremony will take place for the first time outside Bogotá.
Sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have indicated to Europa Press that Albares will be part of the Spanish delegation, after he did not accompany the head of State on July 28 in the inauguration of the president of Peru, Keiko Fujimori, as it coincided with the last meeting of the Council of Ministers before the summer break.
According to a statement released by the Royal House, Felipe VI will land on Friday morning at Alfonso Bonilla Aragón airport in Cali. Before the official event, he will hold a meeting with the elected president, leader of the Defensores de la pàtria party, considered to have a far-right populist profile.
The meeting will take place at the Cultural Center of Cali, a building that, starting August 7, will transform into the presidential residence of the new head of State in the capital of the Valle del Cauca department.
Later, the King will attend the presidential handover ceremony, scheduled for 3:00 PM at the USC Arena in Cali. Once the event concludes, he is expected to begin his return to Spain.
With this trip, the occasions on which Felipe de Borbón has represented Spain at the inaugurations of Ibero-American leaders will rise to 24, a role he has performed since 1996, when he still held the title of Prince of Asturias, after receiving this assignment from his father, King Juan Carlos I.
Round of inaugurations in Ibero-America
The inauguration of De la Espriella adds to those held this year in Portugal, Chile, and Costa Rica. In 2022 (Honduras, Chile, Costa Rica, and Colombia) and in 2024 (Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, and the Dominican Republic) were the years in which Felipe VI attended the highest number of inauguration ceremonies, with four in each year.
Furthermore, it will be the sixth time that the monarch attends a presidential inauguration in Colombia. The most recent took place in 2022, on the occasion of the rise to power of the leftist Gustavo Petro, while previously, when he was Prince of Asturias, he participated in the ceremonies of Andrés Pastrana (1998), Álvaro Uribe (2002 and 2006), and Juan Manuel Santos (2010).