Bogotá, ready for the arrival of the Indigenous Minga

The Indigenous Minga will arrive in Bogotá this afternoon and not tomorrow, as had been planned on October 15, when it left the city of Cali to mobilize for the capital and demand that President Iván Duque listen to its requests during a public debate. The reason: they planned to stay tonight in Soacha, but the mayor of the municipality, Juan Carlos Saldarriaga, stated that he did not have the resources to house them.

Despite “the invitation to go to the capital omitting their stop here” made by Saldarriaga, the Minga is meeting, at this time, with the Mothers of False Positives of Soacha and social organizations of the municipality. According to Darío Tote, spokesman for the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), after noon they will take their way along the South highway and, then, race 30 to go to the Palacio de los Deportes in Bogotá, near the Simón Bolívar park, where they will be staying this week.

The sports complex, planned for up to 7,500 people, It already has tents, sanitary batteries, portable sinks, showers, three tank trucks with drinking water, hospital beds, medical ambulances, medical offices (ancestral and western medicine) and even a space with covid-19 tests, if necessary. and that indigenous communities want to submit to them. This was confirmed by the mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López, before the media this morning.

“Here we receive them with all the respect and the organization and dignified logistics for them and according to their customs”, affirmed the president of the city.

The arrival of the Minga to the capital, however, has increased tensions between the National Government and the District, because, according to the mayor of Bogotá Claudia López, the Ministry of the Interior, headed by Alicia Arango, did not want to work in conjunction with the city to receive the around 5,000 protesters.

“It seemed better to us to receive the minga in agreement with the National Government as a gesture to ease tensions. They did not want. No problem. Bogotá will take care, he will receive them and, as always, will agree with social organizations the guarantees for peaceful mobilization “, the mayor published in her account in Twitter.

In response to the mayor, who also questioned President Iván Duque for not attending Cali and having a dialogue with the Minga, instead of having it move to Bogotá, Diego Molano, director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency, replied that he is looking for him López is to evade his responsibility before the arrival of the protesters to the capital. This was stated for EL TIEMPO this Sunday, in an interview conducted by Yamid Amat.

“I correct the mayor once more: the Duque government has met with the minga since 2019 and we did comply with more than 80 percent of the commitments. Perhaps due to her days off, the mayor did not find out that the half of the cabinet of the National Government to continue the dialogue and show results. Hopefully your comment is not again to evade the responsibility of sanitary control that you must activate in the face of crowds, because, as she says, “The math of the covid does not fail,” said Molano.

Today, prior to the arrival of the Minga, the mayor again took the opportunity to invite the Government to listen to the citizens and the Minga.

“With all due respect, I invite the National Government to solve the conflicts it has with the citizens and with La Minga. Colombia needs fundamental solutions so that life is respected, ”said the mayor, adding that she does not understand how the Democratic Center stigmatizes the social mobilization of those who demand the right to life, even when “Promoted protests for the freedom of a convict.”

‘Coexistence managers will accompany the Minga, not ESMAD’

Last night Caracol Radio headlined in one of its news: “Esmad will accompany La Minga so that the Police can make a presence in neighborhoods”, a fact that generated reactions in some political sectors, especially in social networks and in front of which the senator Gustavo Petro spoke.

“This is the height of opportunism. Send the Esmad to the minga and present it in good manners. Esmad is only the last option and is used when violence breaks out. The minga is peaceful ”, was what the senator said Twitter.

However, the mayor denied what was said by the media and affirmed that the minga, like all social demonstrations, will be accompanied by the coexistence managers and not the ESMAD. He did it on Twitter and ratified it during the press conference at the Palacio de los Deportes.

“For ESMAD to accompany them would be disrespectful, as well as unnecessary. It is false that he will accompany them. The Minga will be accompanied by the Indigenous Guard and the coexistence managers of the District, ”said Claudia López.