Colombian President Gustavo Petro, on an official visit to Spain, called on Thursday for the start of unconditional peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
"Latin America's position is that there should be a peace agreement because we have suffered an increase in hunger due to the rise in food prices," Petro said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País.
"We are not interested in this war continuing," the left-leaning politician said, without acknowledging that Russia invaded Ukraine more than 14 months ago.
At a press conference with Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Thursday, Petro added that more people have been killed in the war on drugs in Latin America over the years than in the wars in Ukraine, Syria or Iraq.
Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has made similar demands. Both Petro and Lula have not accepted the claim that Russia, as the invader, is solely to blame for the war.
"This discourse does not seem honest to us," Petro said. "The same [countries] that reject this invasion have also carried out invasions...And I'm not just referring to the invasions in the Middle East, but also the ones Latin America has suffered."
Petro, in a speech to the lower house of the Spanish parliament in Madrid on Wednesday, also criticized climate change deniers and pushed for renewable and clean energy.
"We have a mission, which is to save humanity," he said. "Either we change or we die out." The speech was boycotted by the right-wing populist party Vox.
