This Thursday, President-elect Gustavo Petro went up to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. In the place, the Arhuaco Indians “possessed” him in a ceremony that they qualify as ancestral. The future president attended accompanied by Iván Velásquez, appointed Minister of Defense, and uniformed National Army personnel.
“In the ancestral possession of the president in the heart of the world. Arhuaca ceremony ”, Petro wrote on her social networks together with members of the indigenous community.
In turn, this is the first time that Velásquez is publicly seen interacting with members of the security forces after his appointment as defense minister. In one of the images, he posed with Petro and eight uniformed men.
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Velásquez also shared a photo with Petro: “With President Gustavo Petro, in the heart of the world.”
In a video, a fraternal interaction is seen between an indigenous person and the future president. In the background you can hear people talking in Arhuaco, the community’s own language.
This is not the only ceremony scheduled prior to August 7. This Saturday, Petro and Vice President-elect Francia Márquez will attend a “popular and spiritual possession”, invited by social, popular, ethnic and ancestral organizations of Colombia.
“A ceremony that will seek to harmonize, from ancestral spirituality, the beginning of this new cycle in the history of the Colombian peoples,” the group announced about the event that will take place in the Parque Tercer Milenio in Bogotá.
In this event, the promoters will give the duo the “popular mandate” that includes “the feelings of the organized people and the general aspects of the accumulated program built in multiple meeting spaces.”
Before traveling to Santa Marta, Petro reappeared this Thursday from La Macarena, Meta, after several days of absence from public events and official pronouncements. He did it with a striking video in which he appears putting on the presidential sash in the middle of a colorful natural landscape.
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The recording was in Caño Cristales, one of the natural wonders of Colombia, located in the Sierra de la Macarena. It is the point where the Amazon, the Orinoquía and the Andes meet, in addition to being one of the most privileged points in the country, with more than 1,592 species of flora and 772 of fauna.
“Preparing the official image in the Serranía de la Macarena. The immensity of biodiversity and its climates. The magic of Colombia, world power of life”Petro explained from his Twitter account.
In the video he is seen sharing with the residents of the region, along with members of the Police, after which he heads to Caño Cristales, where the presidential sash is imposed against the background of the natural landscape.
Álvaro Uribe will not attend the possession
On the morning of this Thursday, former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez called the president-elect to inform him that he will not attend the presidential inauguration. In a trill, the leader of the Democratic Center explained his reasons, related to his legal situation.
“Today I called President-elect Gustavo Petro by phone, I thanked him for the kind invitation to his possession, I excused myself from attending because I have had a prison complex for two years,” he began in a text attached to the trill.
“I will not attend due to the modesty derived from my legal situation that I want to overcome. I reiterated the purpose of maintaining a constructive dialogue with frankness in the arguments and respect for the person of the head of state”, he added.
On the other hand, the former president said that the militants of his political party will be present: “The comrades of the Democratic Center will attend the inauguration, a symbol of our democracy.”