From Jericó, Antioquia, in the middle of the regional meeting of the southeast of Antioquia, President Gustavo Petro announced that he will review the mining titles delivered in the country up to now and that the national government will file before Congress a bill to reform the Mining Code.
In his speech, the national president indicated that, in response to the ruling of the Constitutional Court, “all the mining titles, until now delivered everywhere, there and here, will be reviewed to try to make it consistent with a series of basic principles of the territory, among them, the care of water”.
He assured that the bill will take into account small producers in the sector and that natural resources will not be affected. “We are going to present a project to change the Mining Code, and we have summoned a national convention of small Colombian miners to formulate their proposals, because we want a State that is friendly to the small miner, the small miner, to return and we can walk for a path where things can be more sustainable”, said the president.
Petro also said that it has received studies provided by the academy that show that “there is undoubtedly a danger between the proposed mining and water,” and that they will be taken into account for the reform of the Mining Code. “Then we choose the water,” she said.
“We do not want these government decisions that are made based on the territorial discussion, not against it, but with it, and knowing that there are forces in favor and others against the project, we do not want this polarization to increase, but rather that we can build common notions about the future,” said the president.
He implied that the mining titles that have been delivered in Jericó and its surroundings, including Quebradona, which could endanger the area’s aquifer reserves, would be reviewed. “You cannot endanger the water in the territory. We said that in the campaign, it was not to say it, ”he specified.
Likewise, he expressed that the Government will have to present new projects to encourage agricultural activity in the country, such as the development of road infrastructure, facilitating access to credit, and the articulation of knowledge of agriculture and food production; for the latter, he proposed a training system that he called the Campesino National Training Service (SENA).
In that meeting in Jericó, the president listened to the authorities of the 23 municipalities of southeastern Antioquia and some leaders of that area of the country, who celebrated that the national government wants to advance a reform to the Mining Code.
“In Jericho, Antioquia. Making fundamental decisions for the territory together with the citizens. The national government privileges water and therefore stops mining projects that put it at risk. We want Jericó and the province to be an agrarian and ecological district,” Petro expressed on his Twitter account.
At the end of his speech, the president referred to Camilo Peláez, the EPM contractor who disappeared in San Andrés de Cuerquia when he was doing field work in the area.
Gustavo Petro says that a commission is looking for Andrés Camilo Peláez Yepes. Twitter (@dondeestacamilo), Presidency.
“To Andrés Camilo’s mother, who I have read on Twitter, her call does not go unnoticed. The Government has a commission dedicated to the task of searching for it and it is headed by the Minister of Defense. I have asked to raise the rewards, prioritize the case, so that one day we find his son, we know what happened, ”he said. with Infobae