After the events that occurred last week in the Farallones National Natural Park, in which 30 members of the Army were detained and later released by people who practice illegal mining, the governor of Valle, Clara Luz Roldán, rejected through her account Twitter these acts of violence and emphasized that “The Farallones de Cali are not touched.”
The president stated that “I ask the public force and the Minister of Defense, Iván_Velásquez, not one step back. We are going to continue recovering all the Farallones de Cali”.
He also asked the Ombudsman’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office to “accompany and support the dialogue tables with the community. But the cliffs are not touched.
Roldán indicated that “I am very sorry that a person has died, I am concerned that public force personnel continue to be kidnapped and I am outraged that the biodiverse heritage of Valle del Cauca is being looted.”
He emphasized that “with the community we dialogue in search of solutions, but we cannot negotiate anything with the illegal miners who use mercury, who deforest and pollute the water, what they are committing is a crime and the public force must bring them to justice.”
For her part, Nasly Vidales, Secretary of the Environment of the Valley, said that “under the leadership of our governor Clara Luz Roldán we have carried out actions to strengthen environmental governance and support the community in social and environmental events with the Peñas Blancas community.”
The official added that “our governor has complied with the Vallecaucanos, and from the environment secretary our commitment was to initiate implementation of actions aimed at the recovery of areas degraded by illegal mining, today we promote environmental governance in the Farallones.”
The Secretary for Coexistence, Camilo Murcia, emphasized that “since the beginning of the mandate of Clara Luz Roldán we have fought frontally against illegal mining in the Farallones, every day more people arrive from other areas of the country to continue extracting, damaging the land, displacing species and contaminating water. For this reason, our soldiers and police are doing a unique job, which is none other than protecting the Farallones.”
The official said that “we deeply regret any death, any act of violence; we must find ways to protect natural resources that are priceless for future generations, therefore we cannot lose this fight to protect the Farallones Park, we cannot allow natural resources to be violated and water to be poisoned, the subsistence of future generations.
He added that “all the institutions will continue to focus on this objective, protecting the environment is fundamental and cannot be postponed.”
He thanked the public forces and the Ombudsman and Prosecutor’s Office for their support in this difficult situation and the Army and the Prosecutor’s Office for their determination and safeguarding of Human Rights in the midst of the confusing and difficult situation experienced in the Pichindé sector in Cali.
frontal fight
The authorities of the Valley have maintained joint actions to combat illegal mining in the Farallones de Cali.
Precisely, and before the events occurred in Pichindé, the authorities had presented a balance in which they had announced at least eleven captures and the destruction of multiple elements for environmental exploitation and illegal mining in the Farallones Natural Park.
“With the Police and the National Army, different activities have been carried out in what corresponds to the illegal extraction of materials, specifically, capturing some people who have dedicated themselves to this illegal activity, as well as the different elements that are used for the extraction. of materials such as pentolite, firearms, and mercury,” said the Secretary for Coexistence and Departmental Security, Camilo Murcia Lozano.
The commander of the Cali Metropolitan Police, General José Daniel Gualdrón, maintained that the intention is to continue affecting these illegal economies that impact citizens and the environment. “We achieved strong results with the intervention of eleven mining units, fourteen engines destroyed, two motor pumps destroyed, two air generator engines disabled, eight industrial drills destroyed and three power plants destroyed,” the official reported.
Actions in matters of public order are complemented by support for green enterprises and businesses that replace mining extraction and the strengthening of community processes with comprehensive care days carried out by the Valle Environment Secretariat, a department that also led clearing actions and evacuation of around 700 kilos of illegal mining waste in Alto del Buey in mid-April.
“Soon we will have our Mining-Environmental Plan, with which we are seeking to legalize, formalize, and facilitate the sustainable use of mining in the department, making us the first department to have this document by ordinance, and which, of course, will be model at the national level”, stressed Nasly Fernanda Vidales, Secretary of Environment of the Valley.
In the Farallones de Cali, eight sinkholes remain active, for which the authorities design actions to prevent these illegal activities from strengthening.