On Sunday March 19, 2023, President Gustavo Petro announced that it was ending bilateral ceasefire with the ‘Gulf clan’. And this Monday, March 20, the president held a security council in the municipality of Caucasia (Antioquia).
(See: ‘Freedom and Order’, the request of governors to Petro for violence).
Also present at the meeting were the Defense Minister, Ivan Velasquez; the interior minister, Alfonso Prada; the leadership of the Military Forces and the governor of Antioquia, Hannibal Gaviria.
“The ‘Gulf clan’ manipulates the needs of a mining population, subjecting it even by its own hunger to a kind of population confinement and instrumentalization to save large illegal mining“said the president at the end of the meeting.
And he indicated that they are not persecuting small mining and that, in fact, they are going to advance in the construction of a mining and productive district. “All the assets of the SAE, all the assets that have land, must be put at the service of the peasantry and the victims of the territory“, said.
We seek that small miners can own their own machine through, even, the legal transformation of the Mining Code
Petro stressed that the order for the Military Forces is to cover the entire territory and restore peace of mind to the inhabitants of the region.
(See: The labor reform, new proof of support for Petro in Congress).
This Tuesday, March 21, there will be a meeting with all the mayors of Bajo Cauca, the governor of Antioquia and the government team from the different ministries to establish the road map for “democratic construction” around mining.
Finally, he assured that he does not go “to allow the territory to be used to prey on humans and nature based on greed“and summoned a national mining summit to initiate a census of machinery in order to formalize the activity of small mining.
(See: He agreed with him: Petro spoke about Uribe’s criticism of the labor reform).
“We will start this activity so that the gold does not belong to the big dollar launderers and drug traffickers“, he concluded.
Harassment of the Public Force
While the president was advancing the security council, harassment was reported against members of the Public Force who were guarding the Troncal de Occidente, at the height of Tarazá (Antioquia), right in the place where 6 vehicles were incinerated this Sunday.
The events occurred in the vicinity of the township of Puerto Antioquia, just over 70 kilometers south of Caucasia, Where was the head of state?
(See: Petro approval falls to 34% and 57% believe their son is guilty).
Why did Petro end the ceasefire?
The announcement of the end of the ceasefire occurs six days after Petro himself denounced that this organization was responsible for the damage to the Tarazá aqueduct, in the Bajo Cauca region (Antioquia) and after Governor Aníbal Gaviria denounced an attack on the Troncal de Occidente between Yarumal and Tarazá against four cargo vehicles and two public transport buses that would have been perpetrated by members of that organization.
The ceasefire was agreed on December 31, 2022.
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