The President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, was received on Sunday afternoon at the Argentine Ezeiza airport by Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero, on the Chilean president’s first official trip abroad.
Boric, who as usual wore a suit without a tie, was received at the airport with honors by a military band. Upon getting off the plane, he effusively greeted the reception entourage, including the ambassador to Argentina, Bárbara Figueroa, for whose appointment the president was questioned in Chile.
The president will begin his agenda on Monday with a floral offering at the Monument to the Liberator General José de San Martín, an emblem of collaborative relations between the two countries. Later he will hold a meeting with his Argentine counterpart Alberto Fernández at the Casa Rosada, said a statement from the Argentine Foreign Ministry.
In addition to the president, the delegation includes Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola, Defense Minister Maya Fernández, Energy Minister Claudio Huepe, Women and Gender Equity Minister Antonia Orellana and Culture Minister Julieta Brodsky, among others. others. These officials will hold meetings with their trans-Andean counterparts on Monday.
Boric will also visit Congress and meet with the provisional president of the Argentine Senate, Claudia Ledesma, and of the Chamber of Deputies, Sergio Massa.
Meetings of an economic, business and energy nature are scheduled for Tuesday, in which almost 50 businessmen will participate, according to the Chilean presidency. The objective of these meetings is to establish strategies for “a sustainable and complementary development for the region.” The Chilean president’s agenda also includes activities of a cultural nature.
It is tradition that the first official visit of the Chilean leaders is to Argentina.
Boric has opted in his previous statements to intensify ties between the countries of the region. “It is necessary and important for Latin America to once again have a voice in the world, which we have been losing for a long time,” said the youngest president in the history of Chile, at 36 years old.
In this sense, the Chilean Foreign Ministry confirmed to AP on Sunday the withdrawal of Boric’s government from PROSUR, which had been promoted by his predecessor in office, the center-right Sebastián Piñera, together with the Colombian president, Iván Duque. PROSUR (Forum for the Progress of South America) was created in 2019 as a Latin American integration body intended to replace UNASUR, created in turn by former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.
In its last meeting in January, in addition to Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador and Guyana participated.
“We must stop creating organizations based on the ideological affinities of the leaders in office,” Boric declared in early March at a meeting with foreign correspondents alluding to PROSUR. “I think they have shown that they are not useful to unite us and to advance in integration,” said the new Chilean president.
