Due to a miners’ strike in Antioquia, even ambulances couldn’t get through the blockades: patients were carried in their arms

Inhabitants of antioch and some Lower Cauca make sure the mining strike generated by operations against public force against illegal mining jeopardizes mobility and certain essential services such as ambulance transport.

Over the past few hours, videos have been released on social networks which reveal the blockages of those who protest, so much so that they do not authorize ambulances with patients who are referred to a care center.

According to the authorities, the protesters cut down several trees in the area in order to place logs on the road and prevent the passage of any type of vehicle, this particular event occurred in lying in the road between Cáceres and Tarazá.

According to figures from regional authorities, the mining strike generated more than 400,000 affectedmainly, due to the blocking of roads which prevents food from reaching and other essential services.

Part of antioch has been incommunicado for more than 4 days, because the barricades on the roads of Costa Caribe and northeast of the department prevent it from reaching different municipalities in Antioquia.

In sight there is still no tangible solution to end the demonstrations in Antioquia and Bajo CaucaThe situation has even spread to the region of Saint George of Cordoba, where trade has been most affected, all on behalf of those who block ask for the presence of the president Gustavo Petroand ministers who are involved in special operations to suppress illegal mining in the region.

Those leading the protests have a list of eleven points (or specifications) to end the mining strikethe first – and one of the most important – is the formalization of “ancestral” mining, they also asked to regulate law 2250 of 2022 to grant the presumption of legality of “artisanal” mining

Among the points is also to repeal the decree that authorizes the National Police to blow up the machines which is used in illegal mining Throughout the national territory.

The operations were ordered by the Iván Velásquez, Minister of Defense, in order to fight against illegal mining in the department. “The order is peremptory: total war against criminal finance. In Bajo Cauca, Antioquia, five large dredgers that generated wealth for illegal armed organizations were destroyed,” the senior official wrote on his Twitter account in recent days.

in dialogue with Radio Blueone of the residents affected by the blockade of the road that connects Medellín to Montería and other cities on the Caribbean coast denounced that in recent days in the region Not only have certain foods become scarce, but their prices have also increased.

Repository file image. Egg buckets are among the foods whose price increased the most due to the blockade on the East Trunk. Pixabay

“Right now you can pay up to 25 or 28,000 pesos for a bucket of eggs. A packet of arepas can cost between 4,000 and 4,500 pesos. A sausage bar that costs around 14,000 pesos, we let’s get it for 23,000 pesos,” the resident told Bogota radio.

Given the situation, the authorities recalled that at present the alternative route that is activated for people who must travel to the departments of Córdoba, Sucre and Bolívar passes through Urabá in Antioquia, by road that connects Medellín to Arboletes, thus continuing the transit to Montería.

In the case of travelers who need to reach the departments of Cesar, Magdalena and La Guajira, they can do so through the Medellín-Puerto Berrío road, since it connects directly to the Ruta del Sol.

Until now, the date on which the miners’ strike would be lifted in Bajo Cauca, Antioquia, is unknown due to the failure of the meeting that took place in recent days between the miners’ strike committee and representatives of the national government.