16 days of strike have been completed and the representatives of the mobilization did not reach an agreement with the national government in the meeting they had on March 16, 2023reason for which the National Confederation of Miners of Colombia, as well as the Confederation of Emerald Workers of Colombia, decided to join the mining strike.
This was made known through a statement in which they expressed that the attitude of the table has been “intransigent” and thus indicated:
“We call for the unity of all the miners in Colombia to face the persecution and stigmatization carried out by the Government.”
In the document they also pointed out to the National government because, according to his criteria, he has taken advantage of the violent acts that have occurred in the areas of Antioquia and Córdoba, venues where the mining strike is taking place, to “discredit” and “stigmatize” the mobilization. Thus, they indicated that they have blamed the miners for acts of vandalism for which they maintain that they are not responsible.
Facts such as the burning of mining machinery, the prosecution of small miners and the connection that the protesters have indicated with Criminal organizationshave strengthened the justification with which they called on other organizations to join the demonstrations and join forces for a national mining strike.
Following their pronouncement, they stated the following:
“We call on the national miners of all kinds of material, forced by the absurd regulations in force and the lack of will of the governments, to be actively linked to the planning of a great civil, democratic and organized national strike.”
The leaders provided this information on the same date that Defense Minister Iván Velásquez announced the destruction of three other dredgers for the mining in Nechí. It is worth mentioning that the strike began after the execution of operations of this type was registered with the burning of five initial dredges.
On March 16, 2023, in the city of Bogotá, a meeting took place with the leaders of the mining strike of the Lower Cauca and the ministries of Environment, Mines, Interior, in addition to the High Commissioner for Peace, which sought to reach agreements that would put an end to the serious public order situation that has also affected the municipalities of the two departments.
However, after 16 days, the situation does not seem to improve, since they failed to reach an agreement.
This was announced by Saúl Bedoya, one of the leaders present at the meeting, who mentioned after the last meeting: “National call (…) Until now there has not been a timely agreement. The dialogues continue in a biased manner (…) part of what we have is that there has been no agreement. Therefore, we remain where we are until the call can be made again to resume those dialogues.
In addition, Bedoya assured that, in order for them to lift the protest, the ministers present at the meeting they offered a subsidyeither. Although he did not provide detailed information about the economic resource in exchange for lifting the strike, he pointed out that the offer was an offense and that: “we have not come to ask for alms.”
According to the strike spokesman, there are many miners who have had to resort to credit with banks in order to continue exploiting the material, which is why a subsidy, following his proposal, would not allow them to pay the debts. Therefore, he requested:
“Give us a month or a month and a half for an express characterization to shield all the miners that we are, we are the ones that are, that is, that it prevents a proliferation of mining and for the government programming that the environment stops ”.
For now, it is known that the commission that traveled to Bogotá for the dialogue table He will travel again to Bajo Cauca, an area where the mining strike will continue to be in force in which a new meeting with the authorities will be held.
