Colombia: Government for Dialogue with Transport Workers
Colombian Goverment Meeting, Sept 2024 Photo: @Maria_Constanz_
September 3, 2024 Hour: 5:39 pm
In response to the demonstrations of discontent, Colombia’s finance minister, Ricardo Bonilla, today described the stances adopted by the haulers as unconscionable.
On Tuesday, the Colombian government, through the Ministry of Transport, reiterated its willingness to enter into a dialogue with the truckers who have been blocking the main roads of several departments for several days.
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The minister of this portfolio, María Constanza García, referred in her social network X the request to the representatives of the union to avoid permanent closures in the road corridors, so as not to affect the fundamental rights of citizens, students, and seniors, or hinder health services.
The official added that the General Directorate of the Colombian Police, together with the Ministers of Mines and the Interior and the Deputy Director General of the Traffic Police, had set up a Unified Command Post to monitor the progress of the strike.
Since last week there have been road blockades in Colombia by truckers in several departments, in protest against the increase in the price of diesel, which rose last Saturday by about 50 cents a gallon.
In response to the demonstrations of discontent, Colombia’s finance minister, Ricardo Bonilla, today described the stances adopted by the haulers as unconscionable.
‘The reaction of the transport union is excessive and they are totally paralyzing the country without taking into account the needs of the population to go to work, to move their children, etcetera. So, I have already seen that human rights are being violated in several of these mobilizations’, he told local media.
The price of diesel has been frozen for 56 months, it is something fiscally necessary that the country and the transporters have to understand, he explained.
Bonilla also said that it is a matter of economic stability and of bringing prices in the economy into line, and he hoped that the protesters would return to negotiations.
During the day, blockades have been reported on important roads in Bogotá, as well as on the Pan-American Highway that connects the capital cities in the southwest of the country. There are also closures in Cesar, in the northeast, and road disruptions in Santander and Norte de Santander.
In the latter region, a woman died the day before due to the impossibility of getting to a medical center quickly.
Autor: OSG
Fuente: DW-The Star
