• Colombia Petro charges against "the Spanish yoke" before his visit

"October 12 commemorates an invasion, a genocide, a conquest, a looting. There was never a discovery", October 2017. "Bogotá was not founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, it already existed. Indigenous history should not be erased, since it existed. Deleting that history only imposes a false narrative. That of the conquerors who murdered those indigenous people", August 2020. These two phrases belong to the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, whose Twitter profile is loaded with examples that feed the Spanish black legend. A propaganda that he proclaimed again on Monday, on the eve of the state trip to Spain, by affirming that the Colombian people fought to free themselves from the "Spanish yoke". However, Petro will wear tonight the highest distinction given to foreign leaders and in which the Crown of Castile is represented: the Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic. This has been confirmed by diplomatic sources to EL MUNDO.

Elected president of Colombia in August of last year, he is one of the politicians who govern in Latin America that feeds discourses contrary to the history of the conquest of Spain. Despite this, the Bolivarian leader has accepted the necklace of Isabel the Catholic, a distinction created by Fernando VII on March 14, 1815 with the name of Royal and American Order of Isabel the Catholic, which rewards "those extraordinary behaviors of a civil nature, carried out by Spaniards and foreigners, that benefit the Nation or that contribute, in a relevant way, to favor the relations of friendship and cooperation of the Spanish Nation with the rest of the International Community".

"This type of ruler incurs serious contradictions by accepting symbols linked to the empire," says Iván Vélez, philosopher, historian and expert on the black legend. However, he recalls that from that time "both Colombia and Spain are heirs". He also believes that the Petro should not forget that Queen Isabella of Castile "is the first protector of the Indians." Because if the president claims the need to protect indigenism it is because "there are indigenous people" and these local ethnic groups continue thanks to a first protection of Isabel the Catholic. "Colombia is a country that comes from those viceregal structures," he recalls.

According to Royal Decree 2395/1998, of 6 November, the King is the Grand Master of the Cross and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Grand Chancellor. It is, in fact, José Manuel Albares on whom it depends to grant the decoration. An Order that has different degrees of insignia: Grand Cross, Commander of Number, Commandery, Officer's Cross, Cross, Silver Cross, Silver Medal, Bronze Medal. Petro has received the Necklace, the highest decoration, and they hope that he will wear it at the gala dinner that the Kings will offer tonight.

As described in the Royal Decree, the necklace consists of "a central piece, seal of the Catholic Monarchs, represented by a golden eagle, in whose center, hiding the body of the same, stands the quartered shield of the Arms of Castilla y León, which correspond to Doña Isabel, and those of Aragon and Sicily, to Don Fernando". The leader who criticizes the conquest of America with the shield of the Catholic Monarchs hanging around his neck. Verónica Alcocer, his wife, has been decorated with the Grand Cross. As did Álvaro Leyva, Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

It is an unwritten rule in Spanish diplomacy to grant leaders who make a state visit this distinction. Thus, since the trip of the president of Brazil, Lula da Silva, last week, had an official character, they did not impose any decoration on him. In addition, as the collar is the highest distinction of the Order, only two or three are awarded a year.

SWORD OF BOLIVAR

Petro has shown from the first day of government a historical revisionism that has put the country in trouble of protocol. His first order was at the inauguration, when he ordered the sword of the liberator Simón Bolívar to be brought to the place of celebration. The soldier, founder of Gran Colombia after independence, was a man who belonged to the elites and whose mandate after liberation was far from granting equality to the country, as the former ambassador of Nicaragua in Spain Augusto Zamora explains in Malditos Libertadores. However, it is revered by a part of the population and his sword was an important symbol for Petro, since the M-19 guerrillas stole it and held it hostage until 1990. Now, the Colombian president adds to the important symbols the necklace of Isabel the Catholic.

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