Mexican politician Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, founder of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, has expressed his support for the release of the Catalan political prisoners in a conversation with Catalan president Quim Torra.
"Many thanks, Cuauthémoc Cárdenas, for our conversation and for your support for the release of the political prisoners, and for a peaceful and negotiated solution for Catalonia. We don't forget the support of your father, who as president of Mexico gave refuge and support to thousands of Catalan exiles", tweeted Torra this Sunday.
Cuauthémoc Cárdenas's father Lázaro Cárdenas was the Mexican president from 1934 to 1940, and opened his country's borders to many thousands of people fleeing the Spanish civil war and the Franco regime.
With the tweet, the Catalan president sent an image of himself with the Mexican politician strolling through the Pati del Tarongers - the Orange Tree Courtyard - of the Catalan government's Generalitat palace.
Many graces @c_cardenas_s for the conversation and for its|his|her|their support to the liberation of the political prisoners and for a peaceful solution and talked by Catalonia.
— Quim Torra i Pla (@QuimTorraiPla) 16 September 2018
Let's not forget the support of its|his|her|their father, that as a President of Mexico he|she|it accommodated and gave support to thousands of Catalan exiles. pic.twitter.com/EPdZcmKCV4
Earlier this Sunday Quim Torra had spoken in the town of Arenys de Munt where he repeated his call for a "march for civil, social and national rights of Catalonia". "Let's be strong and not come to a stop", he said. The president stated that the independence movement wants to keep going forward and is "very clear" about its goal. "We are heading exactly where more than a million and a half Catalans called for us to go last Tuesday, when they demonstrated to build the Catalan Republic".
"That is the objective", he declared, in a speech to local residents, where he was opening the channeling of part of the river bed that runs through the town. He also visited the premises used for the first local consultation on whether the townspeople wanted Catalan independence, held in 2009, a key event in the growth of the independence movement. "We will follow your path, you showed us where we had to go", he told the assembled residents.
Photo: Rubén Moreno
Torra once again invoked last Tuesday's Diada march in Barcelona in which, in his words, "more than one and a half million people" protested. "There we saw that we had the courage of the people, the strength of the ideal and the hope of freedom", he said.
The Catalan president asserted that freedom "is a word so powerful that it can carry everything with it", making a comparison with the Arenys de Munt river bed when it fills with water after rain.
"People cannot be 33% or 78% free, either we are free, or we aren't. And this is the concept that has to guide us through to the end", said Torra.
In Arenys de Munt, Torra was received by local mayor, Joan Rabasseda, with a performance by a local folk dance group. Photo: Rubén Moreno