Raising your voice and protesting to ask for changes that serve to improve the lives of communities is one of the essential pillars of democracy. Thanks to popular mobilizations, many rights have become a reality in the last hundred years: from the vote for women, paid vacations and, to get closer to the present, the review of the disturbing tax reform that the Duque government wanted to present at the beginning of 2021.
Protesting is a right that must be respected; However, turning the day-to-day life of a country into endless protests for which no solution is offered can end up in a nightmare from which you will never be able to get out.
Just look at what has been happening for the last five days on one of the country’s main highways, the so-called Ruta del Sol, with the blockade carried out by peasants, human rights defenders and social leaders who, in an organized manner and in paid buses, who knows why who arrived at the point known as La Lizama, in the department of Santander, to make themselves heard by a government that, they say, has not wanted to listen to their cries.
Since Monday, what is considered the main trunk line that connects the ports of the Colombian Caribbean with the center of the country has been blocked. There are no buses or private cars. No motorcycles or trucks pass. Nothing happens. In fact, the central government does not even pass, which is who the protesters summon to lift the blockade and thus recover normal traffic on this important road.
How to understand the slowness of the Petro government to address this situation? What have the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Transportation been doing in recent days when this is a situation that affects not only mobility, but also has an impact on the prices of food and other products that Colombians consume?
It is public knowledge that there is an order from the president so that this type of mobilizations are not confronted by the authorities and for this reason it is understood that up to now a contingent willing to recover the road for use has not reached the closure point of the highway. and enjoy the majority of Colombians. Let’s say that the Public Force does what it is ordered to do, but what can we say about the ministers mentioned above? Do they also follow orders and therefore do not even turn to look at this critical situation that literally keeps hundreds of people stranded on either side of the point where the protesters crossed several tractor-trailers to block traffic?
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Respecting social protest is a courageous and democratic commitment, but it is equally important to enforce the right of Colombians to move freely throughout the country. It cannot be that a few blockade Colombia and that the government seems to ignore the situation. That is indolent, besides that it goes against the Constitution.
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