Alfonso Velez Jaramillo
The sociological link of Huilense is happy and comforting when learning that, for the first time in many years, all the active forces of the Department of Huila signed a document and united around the Governor and the mayor of Neiva, the two most important positions , asking President Gustavo Petro Urrego, jointly and without selfishness of any kind, to name a Huilense in the management of the Federation of Coffee Growers.
Very fair, exemplary, well seen and welcome the unit. They respectfully ask the president to take into account a person from this department, without giving a specific name, to direct the destinies of that institution.
Contrary to the suspicious, in Huila SI there are people with the academic capacity, the training in coffee issues, the knowledge of the needs of the field and the world, and the experience to assume that national responsibility.
The petition without references in recent history was raised in a document headed by Governor Luis Enrique Dussán, signed by the mayor of Neiva Gorky Muñoz and the leaders of 20 other coffee-growing municipalities in Huila, from Aipe to San Agustín.
Even all of the Huila congressmen and former congressmen are signatories, the majority of the deputies, the economic unions, such as Camacol, the Society of Architects, Economists, the Chamber of Commerce, Fenalco, the Cattlemen’s Committee, Cotelco, the universities with seat in this area of the country.
The united support of the social forces, whose political positions of years ago were irreconcilable with the state directives, such as the CUT, the Regional Indigenous Council, Afro-Colombians, political organizations, among others the Historical Pact, Colombia Humana, the Partido Liberal, Conservative Party, Radical Change, the Democratic Pole, the Green Alliance, the Communist Party, the Patriotic Union, and even the Catholic Church through Bishop Froilán Casas Ortiz.
In the document they base with figures and statistics from the Federation itself, the contributions of this department to the economy and national development, since for 12 years Huila has been the largest coffee producer with 18.13% of the national total, for above Antioquia, Tolima, Cauca and the Coffee Region, which was previously the undisputed leader in grain production.
For the writer, this document is the broadest manifestation and the example of social unity without individualism ever seen in Huila, which must be highlighted because it contrasts with the stark positions as a result of the dangerous polarization that has us all stagnant, each one pulling for your side with your own interest.
The position of Huila is fair, thanks to the joint, serious and harmonious work between producers, the public and private sectors and the coffee institutionality, it continues in the first place in more than a decade.
El Huila produces coffee of excellent quality, recognized in the most important events in the world, and derives its income from the grain in 35 of the 37 municipalities, in which the local and regional economy depends on coffee.
Huila coffee has had a “designation of origin” for 10 years, it has 145,000 hectares planted with coffee trees in 100,000 properties and approximately 83,000 families derive their livelihood from this activity, also generating 101,000 direct jobs in production. collection and marketing.
The world‘s view of Huila is visible with coffee production, and the additional reason for this column is to highlight this unprecedented understanding in our department, conceiving that the so-called polarization is a fiction that must be defeated by working together with a single purpose:
That the government of President Petro, recognize the contributions and the importance of the people of Huila, appointing a manager of Huila, whose purpose should be to bring coffee to the top, and promote the leap of coffee from its pastoral economy to being a protagonist and example of national development, yes, without selfishness of any kind that if possible.