Representatives of the National Unemployment Committee say they have managed to de-escalate 40 “points of resistance”, or blockades as the Government calls them. With this, they assure, the Executive “has no apologies” to sit at the table to negotiate the list of demands of the protesters, who launched on April 28 a national strike that has been in Colombia for more than a month.
This Tuesday a new meeting will take place between the Unemployment Committee and the National Government, with which it is sought to sign the preliminary agreement on the guarantees of social protest, and thus firmly start the negotiations to end the national strike: which completes 34 days. And within the framework of these discussions, the representatives of the demonstrations sent a signal to invite dialogue and negotiations with local authorities to suspend mobility restrictions on the country’s roads.
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Nelson Alarcón, representative of the Unemployment Committee, explained this Tuesday: “We de-escalated the points of resistance, as we have called them, but the Government calls them blockades, badly called blockades. This is how we guide it through a statement sent on Sunday to the different media. And it is one more demonstration of the will we have for a negotiated and concerted solution to this national strike that we are experiencing in Colombia ”.
Alarcón added that “there are more than 40 points that have been suspended. Points of resistance that have been suspended thanks to de-escalation, guidelines, agreement, and a process that we have internally. Thus, the national government today (this Tuesday) has no excuse for saying that it does not sign the preliminary agreements ”.
Alarcón responds to the criticism that the Unemployment Committee has received in recent weeks as a result of the mobility restrictions that have arisen from the demonstrations. A situation that is estimated to have caused losses of more than $ 10 billion.
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Precisely, this Monday an interview by President Duque was known to El País of Spain in which he indicates that “if there are no instructions to lift the blockades, negotiation is very difficult.” Adding that “what the country needs is to reactivate, get vaccinated and generate opportunities.”
In fact, a statement from the National Trade Union Council was also known, which groups together the most representative unions of the industrial, agricultural, financial, commercial and service sectors, in which it asked the National Government not to advance dialogues with the promoters of the strike as long as the blockades in the country continue.
Follow the news of El Espectador on Google NewsFaced with regional negotiations, this Sunday the Unemployment Committee reported that they asked “the accompanying institutions (the UN Verification Mission, office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Episcopal Conference) to verify the reduction of the roadblocks in the country and deliver a report to the parties at the next meeting ”.
In addition, he reiterated that “it supports and encourages regional dialogue processes and unilateral acts carried out by the communities that have significantly increased free mobility on the country’s highways.”
