Honduran President Porfirio Lobo, who came to power in January following the 2009 coup against Manuel Zelaya, will begin a two-day official visit to Colombia on Monday to meet with President Alvaro Uribe and other officials to discuss topics such as security and education, reports W Radio.
Lobo will begin his trip by meeting with Uribe at the Casa de Nariño in Bogota, where the two will discuss issues of mutual importance and sign cooperation agreements.
Later in the day, Lobo is expected to meet with Bogota Mayor Samuel Moreno, and Senate president Javier Caceres, followed by Supreme Court judges.
The Honduran leader will also participate in a meeting with Colombian businesses at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to W Radio, Lobo has said that one of the reasons for this trip to Colombia is to thank the Uribe administration for recognizing the Honduran government, which controversially came to power in January following the removal of previous Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in a coup in June last year.
Several Latin American countries severed ties to Honduras after the coup, but Colombia has worked to build a good relationship following the inauguration of Lobo in January. Uribe paid Lobo an official visit shortly after the election, and in February the two countries signed a security agreement to share intelligence on drug trafficking, kidnapping and organized crime.
On Tuesday, Lobo will leave Colombia for an official visit to Peru, the only other South American country to recognize the Honduran government as legitimate.
Several Latin American countries remain steadfast in their assertion that the Lobo administration is illegitimate, due to the illegal nature of Zelaya’s removal from office. Last week, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez boycotted the EU-Latin America Summit because Lobo was attending.