In order to be able to allocate all the necessary resources that are needed, President Gustavo Petro declared a natural disaster in Chocó, after the avalanche that occurred on the road that connects the department with Medellín.
The head of state’s announcement was made after a tour he took through the sector known as ‘El 17’, in the municipality of El Carmen de Atrato, where the accident occurred in the afternoon of Friday, January 12.
“The Disaster is going to be declared and this decree has a concrete effect so that we can transfer resources from some budget packages to others: 500 billion pesos are going to be transferred from the ANI to Invías so that not only the end of the work, but also what was not done,” said the President of the Republic from the scene of the events.
He added that “we want to ensure that the investment is not only in asphalt or rigid cement, but for the safety of the road, which is precisely that these mountains are not risky for people who travel through the area.”
He also assured that the cause of the accident is due not only to the climate crisis caused by heavy rains, but also to the lack of investment in slope management by past governments. “For this type of roads there is poor budgeting, in poor regions; while in richer regions there are richer budgets,” added the Colombian president.
Through his X account, the national president assured that “in recent decades, money for mobility infrastructure has been contracted in the two richest areas of the country.”
He added that “Politically they had decided to slow down the national roads in the excluded territory and in a good part of Colombia to speed up the roads in the richest areas. That changes starting this year. The priority must be the excluded areas.”
“The entire Colombian Pacific up to the western mountain range is on red alert for landslides and mass removals, given the high volume of rains due to the El Niño phenomenon. The families of the victims will receive direct help from the government,” President Petro concluded by writing.
In another trill, the president asked the Civil Aeronautics to investigate the airlines that “raised ticket prices taking advantage of the tragedy. Business should not be established on blood,” he wrote.
Furthermore, he assured that the indigenous guard has collaborated from the first moment in finding the victims and rejected “the slander from political and media sectors, blaming the indigenous communities for the tragedy. That is not true”.
“The fact that the vehicular flow had stopped did not correspond to human blockades, but to ten landslides that occurred on the road. “Fifty people gathered in a house that was swept away by the avalanche,” he wrote on his social network.
Previously, the President had already announced “all the help available” for Chocó, as well as to regret what happened. “All the help available to Chocó in this horrible tragedy,” was Petro’s message.
For her part, Governor Córdoba-Curi wrote on the same social network: “Today we lost lives, we lost dreams, we lost Chocoanos and Chocoanas who only wanted to meet their families.”
Jaime Herrera, mayor of El Carmen, stated that “the panorama is dark and delicate, because too much land fell, it has not been easy, but we are working to continue fighting on this issue. We have around 191 people who are in the searches, firefighters from El Carmen de Atrato, Envigado, Sabaneta, Dagran Antioquia, the Army, the Police, leaders, the municipal administration, Civil Defense, we do not lack people, the Chocoan people “He is also involved in this natural disaster supporting and helping.” With Infobae