The strategy of Uribismo against the advance of the indigenous Minga to Bogotá

Senators Carlos Felipe Mejía, José Obdulio Gaviria Vélez and Fernando Nicolás Aráujo Rumié on Friday they filed a popular action against the Mayor of Bogotá, various indigenous organizations and the MAIS Movement for the Minga that is approaching Bogotá.

According to parliamentarians, the mobilization is violating biosecurity protocols and putting citizens at risk.

From the Democratic Center, they ask Claudia López to “Assume and exercise your functions, adopting the necessary police measures and activities to prevent the spread of Covid-19, given the risk that the arrival of the indigenous Minga in the city represents for the community in the coming days, amid a pandemic , and without compliance with biosafety protocols “.

The congressmen seek that with precautionary measure the organizers of the Minga apologize to the community for violating the protocols and urge participants to comply with future capacity maximum of fifty people, have a social distancing of two meters; and urgently adopt biosafety protocols in accordance with the standards of the National Government and the WHO prior to their arrival in the city.

Finally, they ask that the cultural heritage of the city be protected, so that they are not repeated in Bogotá events such as the demolition of the statue of Sebastián de Belálcazar in the city of Popayán.

Among the organizations against which the popular action is directed are: National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC), the Indigenous Regional Council of Cauca (CRIC), the Caldas Regional Indigenous Council (CRIDEC) and the Association of Traditional Authorities of the Huila Regional Indigenous Council – (CRIHU).

Minga will arrive in the next few hours to Fusagasuga

After spending the night at the Ibagué Fair Coliseum, the Indigenous Minga left in the morning for Fusagasugá, in Cundinamarca, and then continue to the capital of the country without stopping in the municipality of Soacha that cannot receive them, according to Mayor Juan Carlos Saldarriaga.

According to the indigenous in Ibagué they were given all the guarantees for the protest, although for logistical reasons they had to leave earlier than planned for Bogotá. In Ibagué, in addition, they carried out random coronavirus tests on the more than 4000 indigenous people, results that will be known in the afternoon.

The Palacio de los Deportes, in Bogotá, will be the meeting and stay point

The stage set up by the District to house the indigenous minga will be the Palacio de los Deportes, located on Carrera 50 with Calle 63 on the El Salitre sector in the west of the city.

Prior to the demonstrations of the National Strike on October 21, the sports scene already registers movement, entry and exit of vehicles with fences, bathroom batteries and logistics elements that allow guaranteeing the permanence of the minga in optimal health conditions.

According to the Secretary of Government of Bogotá, Luis Ernesto Gómez, thousands of indigenous people will be able to enter and stay in the enclosure, which has a capacity for more than 2000 people. In addition, many more will be able to stay around the complex, which has several green areas where the District will set up tents to spend the night.

Read also: The minga reaches the foothills of the central mountain range, on its way to Bogotá

Soacha will not be able to host the indigenous minga

The main reason Soacha refused to receive the minga was that the municipality does not have the conditions or the resources to receive it.

“There are more than 500 vehicles and the municipality does not have the capacity to supply so many people, taking into account that here there is a large number of displaced people, victims of violence, and Venezuelan citizens. We would like to reach out to them but it is quite complicated, that is why we reiterate the invitation to go to the capital, omitting their stop in Soacha ”, said the mayor of the municipality, Juan Carlos Saldarriaga.

Soacha does not have the economic and logistical possibilities to be able to house the more than 7,000 people who have been walking for more than five days, in addition, the mayor of the municipality declared that guaranteeing biosafety protocols for attendees would be very expensive.

Although it is unknown exactly how many days the indigenous people will stay in the capital, the District will take care of the logistics and care to house the minga. They will have coexistence managers, health brigades and mass testing to detect possible cases of coronavirus at their disposal.

Read also: Hard clash between the National and District Government due to the logistics of the minga in Bogotá

Controversy over state responsibility

Faced with the imminent arrival of the minga in Bogotá, clashes were reported via Twitter between the District and the National Government for assuming responsibility for the reception of indigenous people in the capital.

Days before Diego Molano, director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency, indicated that the mayor Claudia López should take charge of the sanitary control of the members of the indigenous minga.

Faced with this statement, the Secretary of the Government, Luis Ernesto Gómez, published: “If you are not willing to pay for baths, how will you respond to other requests from the indigenous people?”

Then the Minister of the Interior, Alicia Arango, responded to the secretary: “With the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá there is no prior agreement on the responsibility of the government in attending to logistics and health issues of the indigenous minga that arrives in Bogotá in the coming days. . The local authorities have responded to the minga as they pass through their city ”.

The discussion was later extended with the Vice Minister of the Interior, Daniel Palacios, who responded to the Secretary of the Government on the jurisdiction of Decree 2340 of 2015:

Finally, Gómez called attention to the loan of resources from the State to Avianca, comparing it with the help for public toilets to offer to the minga on their arrival in Bogotá:

Meanwhile, the Bogotá merchants union, through Fenalco, asked the National Government to clarify who would assume the possible damages in the event of clashes or excesses during the mobilization on Wednesday, October 21, which will coincide with the concentration of the indigenous minga.

Read also: Minga must clarify to the country if it wants to create a political movement: High Commissioner for Peace