They denounce charges of up to 1 million pesos to allow the passage of cargo vehicles in the country

In an article by the Investigative Unit of the newspaper El Tiempo, Transporters denounced that they have been charged up to 1 million pesos to allow them to mobilize their vehicles at the illegal checkpoints that have been installed in several cities of the country during the transport blockades in the midst of the protests due to the national strike.

“On the weekend, on the Llano road, at kilometer 36, there were people crossed who said they were protesters. It was 2:30 am They were with men on motorcycles who went from truck to truck asking for a contribution of 500,000 pesos to the cause. They were not armed, and since I did not give them money, I had to deliver part of the merchandise. We feel kidnapped. A colleague, with a bigger truck and a load of potatoes, had to give 1 million “One of the Corabastos providers, who requested to keep his identity confidential, assured in the Bogota newspaper.

In the investigation of El Tiempo found more cases of extortion on the roads of Cundinamarca, as happened with transporters that move products between different populations of the savannah from Bogota.

Among the cases they cited that of an onion merchant from Sopó, who preferred to return to that town so as not to have to pay the 120,000 pesos that were charged in his passage through Zipaquirá, a route that he has to follow in order to sell this product in the municipalities of Mosquera, Madrid and Facatativá where there would also be foreign citizens who charge between 10,000 and 20,000 pesos, they reported in the newspaper. “I preferred to return and lose the merchandise,” said the affected.

A similar situation was also reported on the Lérida-Mariquita road, in the department of Tolima, where An avocado transporter assured that they charged him 180,000 pesos to let him pass with his load of avocados, in the San Felipe sector, after it left the collection point in the vicinity of Fresno.

The Investigative Unit of El Tiempo consulted with the president of the Colombian Confederation of Transporters (CCT), Jorge García, who affirmed that these illegal checkpoints are organized by infiltrators who attend the protests, who cannot be easily identified.

“We reject that kind of behavior. We clarify that this is due to the groups of infiltrators who get involved in the protests. (…) In those crowds it is very difficult to identify who is who. We ask the authorities to provide control, ”García said in the Bogota newspaper.

Regarding these extortions to drivers, El Tiempo also cited the pronouncement of the Guild Council: “They harm the peasant, the worker, the merchant, the businessman, the protester and every Colombian who believes in his country.”

In that medium they also recalled the cases of charges on the roads in the interior of Cali (Valle del Cauca), where, apparently, Vandals charge them between 15,000 and 20,000 pesos under the justification that they are resources to finance their cause in the national strike.

“We must control them with the same vehemence that we must guarantee the right to peaceful march. Many Caleños feel imprisoned in their own city ”, Councilor Fernando Tamayo said in El Tiempo, who revealed videos in which it is seen how young people go in a group to charge drivers in the capital of Valle del Cauca.

In that newspaper they also managed to establish in their investigation that In the El Tintal neighborhood, in the south of the Colombian capital, there are groups of people who are conducting searches of citizens, supposedly to identify policemen.