Military will build works in war zones
By: Felipe Solarte Nates and Leidy Capote López
To prevent armed groups from extorting private contractors and the works from not being successfully completed, the national government will allow the military engineers of the FFMM, coordinate and direct the construction of roads, bridges and other works in regions where several armed groups dedicated to drug trafficking, illegal mining and other criminal activities have dominated, announced this Friday, June 21 in Popayán, the president Gustavo Petro.
He emphasized that thanks to the fact that cocaine, which was previously manufactured legally by Europeans as an anesthetic and for recreation at the parties of the rich, was made illegal in the twentieth century It becomes a source of great profits for the mafias and in our country for armed groups who have already lost their political character, do not intend to change the regime and in practice have become authoritarian dictators, subduing the population, murdering their leaders. and recruiting minors.
Likewise, the president added that he considers crime against humanity the recruitment of minors, who are used as shields so that they do not get bombed, “they are groups that are dedicated to rattle and be intermediaries of the Mexican, European and North American cartels that displaced Colombians in the international cocaine trade and take the large profits from the illegal trade, we are left with sin and without gender and with young people from armed groups Army, Police and criminal gangs killing each other.
What are we left with? With weapons, with armed gangs, with conflicts between gangs, with massacres, with the death of young people. Young people here, young people there. The young people are members of the Army, they are the ones who walk the trail. The young people are the members of the armed groups, they are the ones who also walk the trail. The dead in general are the youth, the social leadership. It is the popular organization that is weakening. What is weakened is democracy. “We are gradually falling into real dictatorships of armed people,” the president said during his speech.
In that sense, he highlighted that real dictatorships of armed people decide what to do, what not to do, what time to go to bed, what time not to, what to grow and what not to grow, what to do with life and “When another armed man imposes what to do with one’s life, one no longer lives in a democracy.”
Furthermore, he raised the possibility that in the Cauca, the only department of Peaceful that doesn’t even have road to the sea, the military engineers also intervene in the trails that the armed groups have opened to transport cocaine to the sea and in the opening of the construction of a port at the mouth of the Micay River, project to which he invited the North American government to join with its diplomats present, to allow at least a transfer to Buenaventura and facilitate the trade of Cauca products to the markets of Asia and California in North America.
He clarified that they are major works that he will not do in this government, but at least they can start them and finance them with future validity.
He also declared, as a total failure, the coca crop substitution planPNIS, launched by the Duke’s government and that in practice it only benefited from the transfer of money to Nequi’s account 312 users when the objective was 85,000 coca growers.
He insisted that individual actions will not work unless a comprehensive transformation of the territory is implemented, not only with the presence of the armed forces, since the ministries, governorates, mayors’ offices, and the private sector must come together. co-financing works and productive projects.
It is worth noting that, during the launch event of Cauca Mission in the city of Popayan, an emergency plan coordinated by National Planning and with the co-financing of various ministries, decentralized entities of the State, government, mayors, the government of the USA and businessmen like Tulio Gomez.
The president also raised the possibility of declaring the Exception status for him Cauca in order to facilitate the implementation of emergency measures, but he did not hide the fear that he would have a fate similar to that which he decreed months ago for the Guajira and was declared unconstitutional by the Court.
The event was also attended by senior officials from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Police, the director of National Planning, Alexander López, the ministers of the Interior Luis Fernando Velasco, Defense Iván Velásquez, Agriculture, Jhenifer Mojica, several vice ministers , the ambassador of the United States, Kevin Murakami, the director of USAID for Colombia, directors of other North American agencies, the mayor of Popayán, Juan Carlos Muñoz, the governor of Cauca, Octavio Guzmán, and the mayor of Jamundí as a special guest .
The director of National Planning, Alexander López, highlighted that Cauca Mission It is an emergency plan, prepared after a month ago the technical team of that institution was 15 days in Popayan meeting with mayors of the 42 municipalities and leaders of social organizations to know and prioritize their needs and proposals, with a view to guaranteeing the presence of the government with the presence of both the armed forces and with works and projects; and not only with military action and isolated programs without major impact for the benefit of the population.
The Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, emphasized that this comprehensive action plan to strengthen territorial control seeks to guarantee the permanent presence of the institutions in the regions affected by the conflict and for this reason it includes both the strengthening of military action against the violent do not take advantage of the peace process such as the construction of works such as roads, aqueducts, schools, the hospital and the gallery in The Silver, health centers and the hospital ship that they are building in the Cartagena shipyard so that it can sail serving the population of the Pacific coast.
He also announced the promotion of agricultural production through crops such as coffee, with the participation of the National Federation of Coffee Growerswhich supplies seedlings and technical assistance, cocoa, coconut and beans to benefit 5,000 families farmers and also the adaptation of the cold chain to benefit artisanal fishermen, the processing of fish burgers on the Pacific coast of Cauca, support for tourism in Guapi.
For his part, the businessman Tulio Gomezlargest shareholder of the América de Cali team, owner of La Montaña supermarkets and recently appointed peace negotiator with Nueva Marquetalia, attended the meeting and announced that after the Ministry of Agriculture distributes seeds so that 5,000 peasant families can plant beans, they will will buy the harvest directly at a fair price and will do the same with other products that are grown and processed in Cauca and Jamundí.
The Ambassador of the United States, Kevin Murakami reaffirmed its commitment to continue working together with the colombian governmentreaffirmed his commitment to working together with the government and the Armed Forces and highlighted that in several departments they invest more than 11 million dollars in productive projects and programs that benefit communities in the rural sector. The official was accompanied by the director for Colombia of his country’s cooperation agency, USAID.
In the same way, he maintained his country’s support for the construction and reconstruction of Police barracks in several municipalities of Cauca and in Santander de Quilichao where they will install a base to serve the north of Cauca and announced support for the Police and FFMM to provide anti drone of the latest technology in order to confront the attacks launched by the EMC dissidents.
At the end of the president’s speech Petro and the engineer’s protest was heard from the meeting Jorge Campoformer president of the Cauca Association of Engineers, because they made no mention of the construction of the variant Timbío – El Estanquillo.
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