The Constitutional Court decided to accept the request made by the Presidency of the Republic to organize a technical session to evaluate the viability of the emergency declaration that the national government declared in La Guajira due to the poverty and malnutrition that afflict that department.
Days ago, President Gustavo Petro decreed the State of Economic, Social and Ecological Emergency in La Guajira and now the constitutional court will enter to evaluate the decree with which it became official. The request had been made by the legal secretary of Casa de Nariño, Vladimir Fernández.
The decree with which the head of state made that decision was 1085 of July 2, which has now reached the office of magistrate Natalia Ángel Cabo. The requested hearing, argued Fernández, was for the Executive to explain to that court “the reasons that led the national government to issue the decree (…) and delve into matters that are of special interest to that high corporation.” , point to the text.
After approving the request, the Ángel togada will enter to analyze if the edict complies with all the legal and constitutional parameters established in the Colombian Magna Carta and thus determine, from the knowledge of the legislative decree, how viable it is both for the inhabitants of La Guajira as for the rest of the country.
The text delivered by the Government talks about the humanitarian crisis that, since time immemorial, has been going through one of the nation’s coastal departments, due to the lack of infrastructure, child malnutrition, lack of access to basic services such as drinking water and electricity, among others. .
“It is attributed, among other multiple factors, to the lack of opportunities, corruption, climate change, droughts, the phenomenon of the dispersed population (…)”, describes the decree of the Presidency.
To request the review of the Constitutional Court, the Petro Government took into account a provision that this court issued some time ago in which, likewise, they warn of the deaths of indigenous children residing in La Guajira and who belong to the Wayuu communities.
In principle, the objective is to comply with ruling T-302 of 2017 issued by the Constitutional Court in which the state of affairs in La Guajira was declared unconstitutional. Added to that, the Government indicated with the regulations issued on Sunday that it seeks to address, first of all, access to drinking water for human consumption.
The same president issued several warnings during his speech in that department and ordered his ministers and other government officials to take action, as soon as possible, to guarantee a better quality of life for the citizens residing there.
“Drinking water is perhaps the main need of this town. The first question we asked ourselves was whether the amount of water that nature provides in the department allows it to supply the entire population, since that is the popular image that they transmit, they say that there is no water for so many people, but mathematics says the same. On the contrary, there is enough water”, stated Gustavo Petro from La Guajira.
The aforementioned decree will be valid for 30 days from the date of issuance thereof. Similarly, it establishes that “the national government will exercise the powers and obligations referred to in article 215 of the Political Constitution, Law 137 of 1994 and other provisions required to ward off the crisis.”
Likewise, the document also specified that the National Executive will also resort to its powers to issue, through legislative decrees, the additional mechanisms to deal with the crisis and avoid exacerbating its effects. In addition, it established that it will arrange the budgetary operations to carry out these measures. with Infobae