The Vice President of Colombia endorses the movement towards peace

The Vice President of Colombia endorses the movement towards peace

Márquez stressed the need to build a social dialogue based on the principles of respect, tolerance and mutual recognition, involving the communities that historically lived together in the department, the producer union, business and the state.

That is my call, not just as Vice President, but as a member of this region. We are aware of the responsibility that helps us as a national government and in the spirit of our ancestors to work out a solution together, he stressed.

The Vice-President reiterated that the priority of the new government is to protect life, and in this sense she hopes to find a way out together with other authorities that will, above all, allow peaceful coexistence in this region to be maintained.

Second, protect the lives of all parishioners. Third, take action to maintain coexistence among indigenous peoples, Afro descendants and farmers, he added.

He said that the armed and social conflict in the department, and in this case the conflict over land, did not start now but was a situation that had been going on for years and had been getting worse.

“These conflicts over land between farmers, indigenous peoples and Afro descendants are historic. I have witnessed (…) the many situations that have arisen,” he recalled.

The dialogue table is made up of, among others, the Minister of the Interior, Alfonso Prada, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cecilia López, the Governor of Cauca, Elías Larrahondo Carabalí, the Mayor of Santander de Quilichao, Lucy Amparo Guzmán, and representatives of municipalities and trade unions.

acl/otf