In order to facilitate the connection between the most remote municipalities of the Magdalena Medio region, the president Gustavo Petro launched a proposal to reorganize the national territory with the creation of a new department in Colombia.
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During a visit to São Paulo, the head of state assured that the Magdalena Medio region, which includes more than 30 municipalities in various departments, should be reorganized.
This region is characterized by the fact that the Magdalena River crosses it, which facilitates the connection between the municipalities that make it up, which are in departments such as Bolívar, Cesar, Santander, Antioquia, Tolima, Cadas, Boyacá and Cundinamarcamainly.
“As you all know, here it is easier to get to Barrancabermeja than to the capital of the department. The same happens with the south of Cesar, the south of Magdalena or the south of Sucre; the same happens with the east of Antioquia, the west of Santander and the west of Boyacá”asserted the president from San Pablo.
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In this sense, the president explained that new territorial guidelines must be drawn for this, so the ideal would be to have a new territorial entity called “the great department of Magdalena Medio or department of the River”.
The initiative, immediately, had voices for and against, with the territorial entities expressing the greatest doubts, taking into account that there are oil municipalities in this region and this represents millionaire income from royalties for the departments.
“And this is how the Police will be organized, this is how the Military Forces will be organized, the National Navy, this is how, hopefully, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office, together with the mayors of the municipalities of this region, will appear, in such a way that a new territorial entity towards the future, which could be the great department of Magdalena Medio or department of the River”, added Petro.
However, this was a proposal and nothing concrete yet. In fact, If the proposal materializes, it will be a long debate for Colombia to have 33 departments.
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This was explained by Olga Lucía López Morales, who is the former director of the Agustín Codazzi Geographical Institute.
The former official, in dialogue with Blu Radio, stated that this year Law 2200 was enacted, in which the parameters were defined in the event of creating a new department.
This indicates that Congress is the institution in charge of approving or not the new territorial entity.
“This year, through Law 2200, the general guidelines were defined to create a new department. What the regulations say is that it is the Congress that must set the territorial limits in this departmental order and by law the formation of a new department could be decreed, obviously carrying out the boundary studies and taking into account regulations and technical studies and even cultural characteristics of each community”, López told the station.
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*With information from EL TIEMPO
