The community removed the trucks that had been burned by the guerrillas from the road.
The strain and the uncertainty They marked almost 24 hours in the Pan-American Highway that connects to Risaralda with crashedafter two trucks incinerated by men of the ELN remained crossed in the road corridor Tadó–Pereira.
What began as an armed attack ended up becoming a symbol of abandonment, since, according to the community itself, it had to be the citizens themselves who enabled the passage in the face of the total absence of response from the authorities.
It all started when a group of guerrillas intercepted the two cargo vehicles who were traveling along the stretch. They arrested them, incinerated them and abandoned them there, turned into scrap metal, in the middle of the road.
The attack paralyzed traffic between both departments and caused monumental traffic jams that lasted for long hours. Dozens of travelers were trapped without the possibility of moving, waiting for the road to be cleared.
But time passed and nothing happened.
According to citizen testimonies, there was no immediate reaction of the Public Force nor official teams that attended the emergency. The burned vehicles continued to block the highway even after the gunmen apparently left the area. The community then decided to act on its own.
Affected drivers, residents of the region and trapped travelers organized to move the charred trucks and open the road again.
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It was a collective effort improvised, but effective. Between pulls, risky maneuvers and the support of those who were detained at the point, they managed to remove the remains of the vehicles and allow traffic to resume. Only then was the corridor passable again.
The Secretary of Government of Risaralda, Israel Alberto Londonoconfirmed that, although those responsible for the attack were no longer in the sector, the trucks remained blocking the passage for a long time until the community took the initiative.
His statements reinforced the version of the inhabitants, who insist that the lack of state presence unnecessarily prolonged the emergency.
This episode joins an increasingly extensive list of alterations in the Panamericanaa highway historically affected by traffic problems public order and winter emergencies. The fact once again highlights the vulnerability of a strategic corridor for the mobility and the catering in this area of the country.
Although the road has already been enabled, it is still expected that in the next few hours the dispatch of the public transport vehicles between Risaralda and Chocó, a service that was completely paralyzed during the closure.
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The day leaves a disturbing conclusion: it was the communityand not the State, which had to respond to recover mobility on one of the most important routes in western Colombia. A fact that, for many, raises more questions than answers about the security and the emergency care in the region.
Source: Integrated Information System
