Representatives of the truck drivers held a meeting with authorities from the Senate on Monday morning.
Among the points addressed were the repeal of the Zavala – Riera law (criminalization of private invasions, a law in force since September 2021), the price of fuel and the situation of the five truckers arrested for allegedly trying to extort Federico González, minister inland.
“President Salomón’s commitment was to deal on tables this Thursday, a bill that eliminates the bureaucracy in Petropar purchases. So that they are no longer carried out via Public Procurement”, he expressed.
Regarding the issue of the imprisoned leaders, the legislators guaranteed the truck drivers to follow up so that the case is resolved with transparency and within due process.
“Thirdly, we will request that the repeal of the Zavala-Riera bill be ruled and included on Thursday’s agenda. 30 votes are needed for the plenary to become a commission and the project to be dealt with later, ”he said.
Pereira stressed that what was agreed with the truckers does not include new fuel subsidies.
TRUCKS
Juan Villalba, president of the Central Obrera y Transporte del Paraguay, expressed at a press conference that they asked the congressmen to clarify the situation of their colleagues detained since last April 13 for allegedly trying to extort Federico González, Minister of the Interior.
“We request that the Prosecutor’s Office present the evidence they have against the five detained truckers. We doubt the situation because we understand that there was an instigation. The evidence is not shown. We ask the representatives of the Chamber of Senators to help us clarify, “he said.
He pointed out that until now they have not seen a film that could compromise their fellow detainees. That is why they maintain that everything is an instigation by the State.
“We do not want to get into technical issues that correspond to lawyers. We just want to see the evidence,” he stated.
Gerardo Parodi, a member of the Central Obrera y Transporte, said for his part that the legislators promised him to present a bill on tables this Thursday, so that Petropar can make more agile purchases.
“The project will consist of the elimination of bureaucracy at the time of fuel purchases from Petropar. We are going to wait for the law to come out to lift the measure of force. We want the state oil company to be in the same conditions as the private emblems when buying the product”, he stated.
It should be remembered that on Friday, March 25, the Executive promulgated the bill that establishes subsidies to Petropar. One of the articles also establishes that the fuel purchase process can be carried out directly with the suppliers without the need to resort to intermediaries. This was sought to lower costs in response to the rise in barrels of oil in recent weeks.
However, the same Congress ended up repealing the law just two weeks later. This, after claims from the private sector for considering this situation as unfair competition with the state oil company.
With respect to the roadblocks, the representatives of the sector announced that there will be no more until the already mentioned bills are dealt with (Zavala – Riera and de-bureaucratization for Petropar). However, they will remain on the side of the tracks awaiting the decision to be taken in Parliament.
The arrested truckers are; Ángel Zaracho, Roberto Almirón, Vicente Medina, Juan Friedelin and Julio César Solaeche.
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