Paralysis in 16 municipalities of Antioquia due to mining strike

Some 250,000 people from 16 municipalities in the department of Antioquia are confined by a mining strike that, according to what Governor Aníbal Gaviria denounced on Tuesday, is being “pressured” by the Clan del Golfo.

Gaviria described the “false mining strike”, which began six days ago in the Bajo Cauca and Northeast subregions, as a “retaliation” by illegal groups for the burning of five dredges by the Army and the Police on March 1, intervention that affected income from illegal mining.

«They want to make believe that they are the miners, but do the miners extort? That is not what ancestral and artisanal miners do. The Clan del Golfo criminal group is behind this retaliation,” the governor told local media.

He also denounced the “blackmail” and “extortion” to which they are subjecting the inhabitants and the miners themselves to paralyze the activities, close the trade and participate in “a violent protest in all its aspects.”

ROAD BLOCKING AND MINING CLAIM

The population has been greatly affected by different blockades caused by the presence of protesters who cross trucks on the roads, burn tires and fell “huge trees” on the roads, a situation that has left several municipalities with food and gas shortages.

Likewise, the blockades have prevented the passage of a humanitarian caravan promoted from the governorate, the movement of ambulances and medical personnel. Even in rural areas of the municipalities of Remedios and Segovia there is a complex health situation due to an outbreak of dengue in indigenous communities that has not been able to be treated.

In the municipality of Caucasia, which is practically incommunicado and with a shortage of basic necessities, a prisoner escape was also recorded while the Public Force is focused on events derived from the protest, in which signs read phrases such as “we are miners, not criminals” during the mobilizations.

In this sense, the mayor of Caucasia, Jefferson Sarmiento, asked for guarantees for the miners, with whom he has talked to learn about the reality of that sector.

“Today those who are demonstrating are the miners asking for guarantees from the National Government to be able to work,” said the president.

Among the requests consigned by the miners in a document is the formalization and recognition of the ancestral mining that is carried out in this area of ​​the country, a plan to eliminate the bureaucracy that prevents mining formalization and respect for the use of machinery and that does not be destroyed by the Public Force.

For his part, Governor Gaviria revealed that Bajo Cauca and the Northeast present the “greatest environmental destruction in the history of Antioquia” as a consequence of illegal mining and coca planting, with an affected area that, the authorities estimate, is between 20,000 and 30,000 hectares.

HUMANITARIAN SITUATION

the Association of Personeros de Antioquia and the mayors of Bajo Cauca prepared a manifesto in which they demanded the presence of the national Government to solve a mining strike, which has 16 municipalities with food shortages and transportation paralysis. This in view of the fact that the leaders of the strike did not reach any agreement with the authorities at the dialogue table.