“In the chapter on insecurity, we are going to talk about the increase in criminal acts, extortion, ‘hit man’, ‘fleteo’, theft from people, generate anxiety and threaten not only the municipality, but also the region,” he said. Edgar Muñoz Torres, mayor of the municipality of Pitalito. Coffee is a way to reach peace.
In the Valley of Laboyos, the Cumbe Cafetera is held, an event in which the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, will take part.
It may interest you:
The Coffee Summit
In this regard, Edgar Muñoz Torres, mayor of Pitalito in dialogue with the Diario del Huila, stated: “coffee growers will always propose to the country that this crop is an alternative to counteract illicit plantings and is a way to reach peace, as well as for the competitiveness and development of the country”.
Therefore, the burgomaster pointed out that they are going to ask him to subsidize the crop or an alternative that helps coffee growers not to produce at a loss, taking into account that the price of the crop has dropped by 40%.
“The arrangement of the tertiary roads, which due to the rains, are very deteriorated, credits for the producers of this crop and subsidies to buy fertilizers that have high prices in the market, we are going to ask the president,” added the president. laboyano.
It may interest you:
a popular cry
On July 25 of this year, Deputy Armando Acuña, in a debate held in the Departmental Assembly, stated: “what we coffee growers from Huila have allocated to the price stabilization fund has not been reflected in what the fund invest in the department. At the time, the government was warned to strengthen the price stabilization fund and they ignored us. It is the date and the coffee growers are still waiting for support, in modernization, subsidies, investment to improve the conditions of the coffee growers”.
For his part, Octavio Oliveros, leader of the union, stood out. “We fear becoming competitive. We need the National Government to provide the money for the Stabilization Fund, because in several regions of the country, it costs coffee growers $1,500,000 to produce a load of the product and they sell it for $1,300,000, which is why we need the support,” added the spokesperson.
For his part, Carlos Mario Avendaño, stated: “we grassroots coffee growers are going through a major crisis and days ago we had informed the Federation due to the low prices, because we are producing losses due to the high costs of fertilizer ”.
In his turn, Carlos Armando Uribe, director of Union Affairs of the Federation of Coffee Growers, stated. “The effects of the drought and frost in 2021 that Brazil had have passed and this country has already recovered from these situations. It must be taken into account for the market”.
“And the invitation is not to stop fertilizing, the research supports it and we know that production decreases. In Colombia we are underfertilizing, coffee growers spend 400 kilos of fertilizer per hectare, when it should be 1,000,” the official pointed out.
The official stressed that the National Government will give the Rural Capitalization Incentive (ICR) and indicated that they will provide $100 billion in September to support this program, targeting all coffee growers so that everyone can renew their crops.
To top it off, according to the Federation of Coffee Growers: “at the end of July, it is estimated that coffee imports decreased by 50% compared to the previous year, going from 171 thousand bags in July 2022 to 86 thousand in 2023, which represents 85 thousand bags less imported”.
Three homicides in one week. And security?
Another issue to be addressed is the insecurity that affects Pitalito. In the course of this week, three people were murdered in different events. On Saturday they finalize Delio Torres Bermeo, who was in a commercial premises, when he was approached by two men, who shot him repeatedly and then left on a motorcycle.
Despite the fact that the victim was transferred alive to the San Antonio de Pitalito Departmental Hospital, she died while receiving medical attention. As it was known, the deceased presented several notes for theft and illegal carrying of firearms.
In another act of violence, on Sunday in the Porvenir neighborhood, Maicol Steven Motta Salas was found dead. According to the authorities, this person had a record for the crimes of theft, illegal possession of weapons, domestic violence and fraud.
And yesterday the body of a person was found and according to what was known on Sunday night several shots were heard from a firearm. This crime took place near the Gallery of the district of Brussels, then the Criminalistics Unit carried out the removal of the body.
In the security chapter, it should be mentioned that extortion and ‘hit man’, extortion, ‘hit man’, ‘fleteo’, theft of people, generate anxiety and threaten not only the municipality, but also the region. criminal acts would be associated with drug trafficking and micro-trafficking of drugs”, added the mayor.