What position will the current president Gustavo Petro take to resolve the truckers’ strike that the country is experiencing? This is the question that many are asking themselves in the midst of the blockades that the transport sector (which has already been joined by bikers and taxi drivers) has been carrying out since Sunday, September 1.
The transport protest took place after the National Government made official a rise of $1,904 to the price of diesel fuel, the first of three increases that it plans to make to mitigate the deficit in the Fuel Price Stabilization Fund (Fepc).
The ultimate goal is to increase the price by $6,000 in total, and for a gallon of diesel to be around $15,000, approaching international values.
To this Wednesday September 4th, four days of strike have already been completed and the Government and the truckers still have not reached an agreement.
(See also: Petro on rumors of a coup d’état due to the strike: ‘It’s not people against people’)
Various unions and regional authorities have warned about food and medicine shortages, as well as economic impacts on trade and education, since thousands of students’ classes have been cancelled. In Cundinamarca alone, 70,000 students are affected.
Petro reposted posts citing the Constitution’s article on internal unrest.
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So what will the government do? For now, the Petro administration and several of its ministers have defended the fuel price hike, saying it is necessary. There have even been rumours that the president would declare a state of internal unrest.
The state of internal unrest is contained in Article 213 of the 1991 Constitution. and states that “in the event of a serious disturbance of public order that imminently threatens civil coexistence, the President of the Republic, with the signature of all the ministers, may declare a State of Internal Unrest.”
(See also: Truckers’ strike and inflation: the longer one lasts, the more expensive the other becomes)
What indications are there of this possibility? Not many… only that President Petro shared on social network X a comment by José Gregorio Hernández, lawyer and former president of the Constitutional Court, in which this figure’s state of internal turmoil was explained.
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