EL COLOMBIANO, June 25, 2023
(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
The President’s agenda starts out with a Security Council and a Council of Ministers. The administration and the cabinet will be in the region until next Saturday. Petro will declare an economic emergency.
Starting this Monday, June 26, in response to the petitions and necessities of La Guajira, President Gustavo Petro will work out of that Department. Behind that decision are the activities proposed by the administration to accelerate compliance with the Constitutional Court’s decision in 2017 that ordered the government to protect the rights of the Wayuü people to water, food, and health care.
Therefore, for the next six days, the President and his cabinet will be meeting with the communities in municipalities like Río Hacha, Uribía and Nazareth, Albania, Manaure, and Maicao. They expect to issue titles to properties, discuss energy and wind projects, hold community meetings, deliver pediatric installations for treatment of malnutrition, as well as parcels of land for construction of temporary housing and nutritional care, and a center for the care of pregnant women.
The President will also announce a declaration of social and economic emergency in La Guajira because of the shortage of water, the high levels of malnutrition, worse among the children, and the delays in the wind projects that are a key part of the administration’s energy transition policy.
“Starting on the 26th, we will be in La Guajira, the whole administration, the whole week. This week of government from La Guajira will show which institutions are resting on rhetoric, and where the obstacles are that have to be removed in order to comply with the constitutional decision,” explained the President about his visit to the Department, which contains 15 municipalities and more than a million inhabitants.
It’s expected that the President will also hasten a review of the projects that are under way. “We are bold enough to push Guajira into a different dynamic, always with the participation of the whole society, the majority indigenous,” he specified.
Here is the President’s schedule:
Monday, June 26
The work begins Monday at the headquarters of the Governor of La Guajira, with a Security Council and a Council of Ministers, led by President Gustavo Petro. He will make some announcements and there will be decrees on different subjects from several of the Ministries.
Tuesday, June 27
In the morning there will be a Social Dialog by Authorities (Wayuü speakers) in Nazareth in the District (corregimiento) of Alta Guajira, part of Uribía. A decree will be signed by the Scientific Committee of the Truth Commission for the investigation of the deaths of children from malnutrition, and some hospital work projects will be announced.
In the afternoon, there will be an opportunity for dialog with social organizations about the wind projects in the area, since the winds there are twice the world average. This meeting will be in the Julia Sierra Iguarán Educational Institution in Uribía.
Wednesday, June 28, 2023
Titles to properties will be delivered to families in Riohacha, along with two Communitarian Attention Units (UCA) for the Wayuü boys and girls who are less than five years old. In the afternoon, also in the capital of the Department, the Pact for Transition between Wayuü Authorities, Communities, Energy Companies, and the local and national governments will be signed.
Thursday, June 29, 2023
Throughout the morning and midday, there will be a schedule for Ministers to attend to the community in RioHacha. In the afternoon, there will be a Gathering for Reconciliation and Life, a demonstration that will travel the main streets of RioHacha and will end with a speech by President Petro.
Friday, June 30, 2023
In Albania, the Minister of Environment will announce emergency measures on the use of water. In the afternoon there will be a dialog with the communities in Manaure about the childrens’ many problems. At the same time, they will deliver 3,000 computers and a laboratory for innovation.
Saturday, July 1, 2023
In the last day of the visit, they will inaugurate a nutritional risk pediatric wing in Maicao, and deliver to the Colombia Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF) a parcel of land for the construction of temporary housing and attention to nutritional recovery.
Finally, they will carry out a grand finale to the visit in this municipality in the department, where they will sign agreements for the construction of Communitarian Paths to Total Peace by the National Roads Institute (Invías); they will launch the Sounds for Peace Program in the Ministry of Culture, and commitment papers will be signed for the purchase of condensers, by the head of the Housing Ministry and Disaster Risk Management.