Insecurity on the roads: trucking sector asks for help to avoid assaults and more murders

“It’s not fair”

Similarly, Claudia* stated that also his brother was a victim of insecurity on country roads and was assassinated in the department of Antioquia, also after receiving a call to make a charging trip.

In neither of the two cases has the cargo or vehicle subsequently appeared. Even, that it would be calls for alleged cargo transport trips, especially at dawn.

“It is not fair to lose a family member as it is in our case, It is not fair that they go out to transport food and that at the time of the appearance of someone it is 72 hours in which the search for a transporter is deployed, “said the relative of another of the drivers.

He added that “by the time the emergency alarm is sent pay attention to them, we ask you what is happeningLet’s say what we are experiencing as a family does not recur in any other family”.

violent robberies

Albeiro León, a heavy load driver, assured RCN Radio that he feared for his life when he had a machete on his neck in the middle of a robbery, in the early morning of April 7 in the municipality of Cesar, for which he had losses of more than 12 million pesos.

“There were three or four people. Three got into the cabin and they began to threaten me there with some machetes, to hand over the money, the telephone and belongings. That was going through a sector called the Chiriguaná junction, in Cesar (…) there is at the exit of that junction. I saw the lights on the trailer, they started kind of blinking from there I already had a feeling that otherwise they had gotten on“Reported Leon.

Also read: Mysterious disappearance of driver: he was traveling with his son, he stopped to go to the bathroom and did not return

The criminals they take advantage of places or towns where drivers do not realize that they are getting on for steal and even murder drivers, in order to steal the cargo and the vehicle.

He Transport Minister Guillermo Reyesexclusively assured RCN Radio that it would be a criminal organization that has even already been identified.

“Which they seek is to steal their cargo and kill themthen undoubtedly there are criminal groups that are putting the lives of these transporters at risk, The police have already identified a group of these criminals “Reyes said.

Of interest: At least 126,000 truckers are affected by insecurity on the country’s roads

He explained that “we are generating actions and capture measures, once the members of these groups have been identified. On the occasion of these issues of the Clan de Golfo these events occur in the areas of Bajo Cauca (Antioquia) and in some areas of the Pacific”.

It is estimated that in Colombia there are about 491 thousand heavy load drivers.

*Name changed to protect identity.