The episodes recorded in state entities in Bogotá, where indigenous organizations blocked the entry and exit of these structures, unleashed on Tuesday, February 17, a strong response from the former Attorney General of the Nation and former presidential candidate Francisco Barbosa, who on his social networks bluntly described the detention of workers and described it as an inadmissible act that compromises the principle of State authority.
The former director of the judicial investigation body, in his X profile, expressed his position regarding the deprivation of liberty of public officials in the National Administrative Center of Bogotá. “The excuses that are given in a hearing before the guarantee control judge after their judicialization. The rest is the submission of the State to these groups,” Barbosa declared in his message, with which he wanted to emphasize how the Government endorses the facts.
You can now follow us on Facebook and in our WhatsApp Channel
Faced with what happened in the capital of the Republic, Alexis Mina Ramos, senior advisor and spokesperson for the Afro and indigenous communities settled at the National Universityacknowledged incidents of violence and illegal detentions. “We apologized to the affected people. There was no clarity with the officials. We have been at dialogue tables for a long time and you already know who to talk to so that things can speed up, but they did not give us solutions,” he stated in The FM.
For the settled communities, the State has not responded to basic needs, so the situation, according to Mina Ramos, reached its limit, due to the lack of drinking water and food, to which episodes of daily violence in their territories were added: ““Reality is dictated by the drone siege, kidnapping of minors, illegal checkpoints”the social leader remarked to the aforementioned media, highlighting the presence of illicit economies as drivers of insecurity.
Various state agencies were affected by these actions of the groups of protesters, who exercised undue control. Among the committed institutions, the National Administrative Center (CAN), the Ministry of Labor, where altercations occurred between protesters and officials, and the Administrative Courtswhose headquarters were blocked by the guard, who prevented the entry and exit of judicial servants.
Other entities such as Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Housing, National Land Agency, Victims Unit, Ministry of Agriculture and the Special Assets Society (SAE) They were also occupied or blocked. The protesters installed flags of social movements and the indigenous guard controlled access, as part of pressure measures against the current administration, which has 171 days left under its constitutional mandate.
After six hours of tension and retention of hundreds of public employees, which caused collective indignation, The negotiation table led to concrete commitments. “It was possible to ensure the supply of water, food, health services and, most importantly, a safe return plan so that the communities can return to their respective territories,” said Mina Ramos, who specified the agreements reached to overcome the episode that caused chaos.
In terms of land, The indigenous leader announced that with the Land Restitution Unit and the National Land Agency (ANT) An agenda of technical visits was agreed, which will begin on the weekend of Saturday, February 21, and which will have the purpose of carrying out inventories and appraisals that allow the purchase of the properties in demand. In this way, the agenda was left open for the discussion of security, the most sensitive point in the list of requests.
“This Tuesday the most sensitive table will be set up, where the ministries of Justice and Defense, the UNP and the High Commissioner for Peace will participate. The objective is to stop the forced displacement caused by the war between gangs and cartels that operate in their regions,” Mina Ramos pointed out on the matter, stating that after this extensive dialogue they withdrew from the facilities, as it was not necessary, according to him, “the need to be in public space”.
