Truckers’ blockades have caused chaos in the country’s main cities. Bogotá has been the most affected. Photo: @bogotaampm
The President Gustavo Petro broke his silence regarding the truckers’ strike which has plunged different departments of the country and its capital cities into a mobility crisis. He did so, as usual, through his X account.
“The country will not allow itself to be blocked. The rise in diesel prices is fair because it is only recovering the money from a subsidy that should never have been given.” and which already accounts for a large fraction of Colombia’s public debt,” said the president.
The country will not allow itself to be blockaded.
The increase in diesel prices is fair because it is only recovering the money from a subsidy that should never have been given and which already accounts for a large fraction of Colombia’s public debt.
Feeding the hungry and educating our children and…
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) September 3, 2024
He added that There are more pressing and priority needs than giving a subsidy to a sector which generates millions of resources.
«The big trucking companies, owners of thousands of tractor-trailers, believed that the subsidy was a right that the Colombian people should pay them. “These companies shift the cost of diesel onto freight, something that the small truckers they exploit cannot do,” the president added.
He said he is assuming a responsibility that was left to him by the government of former President Iván Duque, who did not make the adjustments that, according to him, were necessary since fuel prices rose due to the fall of the peso against the dollar. “The debt reached almost 80 billion pesos and the country’s external and internal debt payments reach 110 billion pesos annually. If these debts are paid with budgets, there will be no public investment,” he clarified.
Since 2019, the country has not raised the price of diesel because prices were frozen without taking into account that they rise and that Ecopetrol, by law, uses the international price of oil to produce diesel and gasoline.
Internationally, these prices have risen, aggravated by the fall…
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) September 3, 2024
The president’s harsh response contrasts with the statements made by his Minister of Transport, María Constanza García, who on Monday night invited the unions to establish a dialogue table to find a solution to the crisis.
For his part, the Minister of Finance, Ricardo Bonilla, explained that it is unsustainable to maintain the subsidy to the ACPM that has been frozen for 56 months, since January 1, 2020, and that has put the State’s finances in trouble.This is an inefficient subsidy for the Colombian economy that generates a huge fiscal deficit,” has said on different occasions.
The ultimatum of the transporters
The Colombian Transporters Association (ATC) had made public an ultimatum to the National Government that, if they do not back down on the fuel price increase, they will readjust the freight price table with which, according to the association, they could stabilize their finances given the imminent increase in diesel fuel.
ULTIMATUM TO THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
CESSATION OF CARGO TRANSPORT ACTIVITIES pic.twitter.com/hop0gkWVx8
— ATC Transporters (@Oficial_ATC) September 2, 2024
“The Association of Cargo Transporters ATC, END THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT: for a term not exceeding the next September 10, 2024, without further regard to those of the Constitution and the Law, “fair payments and/or freight rates are guaranteed and enforced for all cargo transporters in the country –SICE TAC–, as a result of the general start of a cessation of activities,” the union warned.
2024-09-03 16:44:41
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