CARACOL RADIO, August 25, 2020
https://caracol.com.co/emisora/2020/08/25/cali/1598364275_318183.html
(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
The cleric called them massacres by the government, the recent violent events that happened in this country. The Democratic Center Party asks him to resign from the Church.
A storm was set loose in social media because of what the Archbishop of Cali, Monsignor Darío de Jesús Monsalve said, after he referred to the recent massacres that took place in the provinces of Arauca, Valle, Cauca, Nariño, and Antioquia.
In a message on Twitter, the Archbishop of Cali said this: “They blame everybody in drug trafficking, so that they can re-establish the glyphosate: back to the past. They blame the Peace Agreements that they are destroying mindlessly: back to the past.
And the Archbishop of Cali added:
“They blame ‘the usual suspects’ in order to justify government massacres and criminal connivance? Are they listening to the communities and believing what they say?”
Answering those statements by the prelate of the Catholic Church, the Senator from Valle del Cauca, Gabriel Velasco, the spokesman for the Democratic Center Party in the Colombian Congress, called the Archbishop of Cali a liar, for asking if the recent events were government massacres.
“It’s irresponsible to disavow that these crimes were committed by drug traffickers and the new FARC, which is what the first reports by the authorities are saying”, stated the Democratic Center Senator.
“The Archbishop has come full circle, because of his age, and it would be a good thing if he would go and pray for us Colombians, since as a prelate, he has not maintained a neutral position and has political overtones,” concluded the Senator from the governing party.