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In the midst of the indigenous minga that travels through the country and plans to arrive this Friday in Ibagué and on Monday in Bogotá, Hermes Pete, senior advisor of the Indigenous Regional Council (CRIC), spoke with EL TIEMPO and pointed out what biosecurity measures are they are drinking, he referred to the videos showing a party by indigenous people and pointed out that if they have nowhere to go in Bogotá, “they will have to host them at the Casa de Nariño.”
You have spoken of four reasons why they are doing the minga at this moment, what are they?
There were four of them but they became three: peace and life, which are a single issue, the territory and democracy. They are those points of debate and that is why this minga has been called politics and not as Dr. Ceballos wants to make it seem that he says we want to create a political movement. We have had the political movement for years, but the issue is to debate the politics of democracy in the life of peace and the politics of the territory, points that are too extensive and large, because within those there is also the issue of the pension reform, prior consultation, criminalization of social protest and massacres.
How many people have not killed us in social protests
(Can read: Indigenous Minga: new clash between Bogotá and the Government)
Hermes Pete, Senior Advisor to the Regional Indigenous Council (CRIC).
Which political movement are you referring to specifically?
It is the MAIS (Indigenous and Social Alternative Movement), which is the political movement, because previously it was the ASI. Dr. Ceballos says let’s be clear if we want to create a political movement and that is not the goal. What they are trying to do is to delay and distract so as not to assume and not to show their face.
(You can read: ‘Indigenous Minga must say if they want to create a political movement’)
The Government indicates that the constitutional space to hold this political debate is the Congress …
the duty is of the congress but the congressmen have not been listened to. The congressmen are like to warm chairs with what has been happening because in the congress there are situations of censorship because today there is no democracy in this country. Whose hands is Congress in? Of the President of the Republic, and the prosecutor, in whose hands is it? Of the President of the Republic. These are situations of concern and that is why it is a purely political issue and not electoral politics as the Government wants to make it appear.
Among those there is also the issue of pension labor reform prior consultation, the criminalization of social protest
Some sectors could interpret that your demand to speak only with the President is a whim, what do you say to them?
It is not a whim. For example, on the issue of social protest, the President is the one who guides the policies in this country, they are not the ministers. the ministers execute what the President in his government program says. For example, how many people have not killed us in social protests that have been made, the boys murdered, the rape of children by the Public Force.
Also, it is not a whim because it is not the first time that we are doing this issue with presidents. For example, (Álvaro) Uribe had to go to Piendamó to give the debate, after not listening to the minga and the same happened with (Juan Manuel) Santos.
It is that the multinationals have wanted to deprive us of our lands, we have problems with prior consultations and with extraction in the mines, they are situations in which if we do not protest and do not do it directly with the president, they would have eliminated us long ago, then there are many reasons to continue in this march.
And if the President does not want to attend the minga, then let him not attend to it, today we are leaving a seed in the country.
More than 5,000 indigenous people, peasants and Afro-descendants of Cauca, Caldas and Risaralda who were located outside the El Pueblo coliseum, got up early to prepare their trip to Armenia.
Juan Pablo Rueda Bustamante / Weather
Why do you think President Duque is not meeting with you?
The President is afraid, afraid, or simply does not have the capacity to give a debate with a conversation to a dialogue, and is afraid to respond.
(You can also read: Indigenous reported as missing in Minga appeared in Pereira)
How is your conversation with the Government?
The regional council has informed the ministers what could happen if the debate did not take place and the President did not go. We, without the need for the minga, proposed to the government that the President go and hold the pending debate, and the Interior Minister and the High Commissioner for Peace were informed that they have been in Popayán.
The Government says that they met with investments of more than 344 billion between 2019 and 2020 …
We have not asked for an investment this time and we are going to discuss that but not in this scenario. But in the case of that money they are talking about for 2020 there has been no execution because the issue of the pandemic paralyzed everything, although some portfolios have tried to move forward. And once this minga is over, we will summon the ministers to see how they will execute that money.
The Government has insisted that the biosecurity measures for the coronavirus must be complied with, what measures are they taking?
We have taken all the measures through our medicinal plants. We have survived many pests when technology did not even exist, thanks to our plants. Each community member is given the instructions to load the drink from the plants, mask and wash hands. So we are not carrying the coronavirus, that is already in Bogotá.
How is your health? Did you finally have coronavirus?
That was in August that I had that impasse, but I assumed it was covid because of the symptoms but the tests came out negative. My drivers, my fellow guards who always accompany me, none of them got sick, they have all been encouraged. So I think the coronavirus issue is not so aggressive for us either.
Once this minga is over, we will summon the ministers to see how they will execute that money
Tell me what happened to the episode where several of you were dancing …
That was Monterilla. We have not stopped, in the territories we have carried out activities with 5,000 and 10,000 people. We issued resolution 006 within the framework of the special indigenous jurisdiction. What was seen was a cultural integration that was taking place.
(Do not be left without reading: New government clash with mayor Claudia López for minga)
You reiterate that there are “constant assemblies, acts of accusations advanced by public officials, members of the Public Force and members of the Democratic Center Party about alleged infiltrations of illegal armed groups in the Social and Community Minga”. Why?
It is a montage and a workhorse of all mingas. Some ministers even came to tell us not to do the minga because there was infiltration of incidence and the Eln, as if generating fear, and they are assemblies and accusations that have always been made trying to justify the massacres.
How did the trip to Bogotá go? How was the logistics in Armenia?
Well, I thank the Mayor of Calarcá and the Mayor of Cali and the Valle del Cauca Government. This has been very gratifying for the minga.
What have they told you about the logistics in Bogotá? Where will they go?
Through the Secretary of Government they have been very attentive. As I understand it, they have wanted to deny us spaces such as the National University, but Bogotá is big and there it is easy and if not we will simply meet in the Plaza de Bolívar and in the Palacio de Nariño they will have to give us a posada because the minga goes peacefully.
LUISA MERCADO
POLITICAL WRITING
Twitter: @LuisaMercadoD
Instagram: @ luisamercado1
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