This bill seeks to pay tribute to the black communities, Afro-descendants raizales and palenqueras, indigenous peoples, Rom people, and other Colombian ethnic groups.
This Tuesday, November 8, the Representative to the Chamber for the International Special Constituency Carmen Ramírez Boscán and leader of the Wayúu people, filed at the Congress of the Republic the bill by means of which Admiral José Padilla López is posthumously and honorifically promoted to the rank of Grand Admiral.
The filing of this project seeks to exalt the invaluable work of him who was one of the most decisive actors of the independence of Colombia and Venezuela in the Naval Battle of Lake Maracaibo, as well as pay tribute to the black communities, Afro-descendants Raizales and Palenqueras, indigenous peoples, Rom people, and other Colombian ethnic groups in the fight for independence.
The opening ceremony was attended by Vice Admiral Juan Ricardo Rozo Obregón, Second Navy Commander and Chief of Naval Staff and a delegation of indigenous and Afro-descendant officers who are part of the Naval Institution, as well as the Undersecretary General of the House of Representatives, Raúl Enrique Ávila Hernández
Once this bill is approved, which will have four debates in Congress, on October 02 a minute of silence will be institutionalized in all State institutions, honoring the memory of those who managed to consolidate in a single operation the entire independence campaign of Gran Colombia, preventing the last intention of reconquest by the royalist forces and sealing our independence forever.
In her speech, the Representative to the Chamber Carmen Ramírez expressed that this Bill “not only pays tribute to Grand Admiral Padilla, but in the same way to everything that he represents, that is why this project is rooted in the work of all that ethnic diversity that currently exists in the Colombian Navy” and she added that “the idea of the international chair is to work hand in hand with the Navy and the Military Forces in Colombia who guard 50% of the national territory, which corresponds to maritime and river territory ...”
Admiral José Padilla was born on March 19, 1784, in a hamlet of Riohacha – Guajira, called Camarones. He was a Mulatto, with a Wayuu mother (Josefa Lucía López) and a black father (Andrés Padilla) from Santo Domingo.
Source: Press - Navy of Colombia
