Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia, participated in a film about the life of the independence hero José Prudencio Padilla, along with the American actor Cuba Gooding Jr., financed with public funds.
The left-wing president appears in a photo, which has already made the rounds on social networks, wearing a period costume during the filming of the film of the 19th century Afro hero. Petro often praises figures of Colombian independence during his speeches.
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Cuba Gooding Jr. won an Oscar in 1997 for his performance in ‘Jerry Maguire’, and he plays Admiral Prudencio Padilla.
Admiral Padilla is a key figure in the wars of independence and held the position of senator, he also stood up to the Spanish and helped expel them from the coasts of the then Gran Colombia.
Hollman Morris, director of the state channel, said the president only makes a cameo.
“He does not act, it is a fleeting image that appears at a dance next to Cuba Jr as a friend of Cuba Jr, that is, of Admiral Padilla,” he said about the film that will be in English and Spanish.
His attire is reminiscent of that of the soldier and liberator Simón Bolívar, fundamental for the independence of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia and whom Petro frequently admires and evokes.
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The film will cost more than four million dollars, half of it provided by the state, according to Morris. This investment has generated criticism of the government, given that Colombia is experiencing a fiscal deficit and declared an economic emergency after recent floods in several areas of the country.
The film will be released after Petro’s departure from the presidency, which ends in August of this year.
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