Marta Lucía Ramírez inaugurates post of Foreign Minister accusing the Final Peace Agreement of protests in Colombia

On May 19, President Iván Duque appointed Vice-President Marta Lucía Ramírez as Minister of Foreign Affairs and set several priorities for her management in the international policy portfolio. “She is a woman who has a great career in politics and in the private sector. A woman who has been Minister of Foreign Trade, Minister of Defense, Senator of the Republic, Vice-President of the Republic ”said the head of state.

Ramírez takes office, without leaving the vice-presidency, replacing Claudia Blum, who has resigned amid social protests that have led international organizations and countries around the world to ask the Colombian government for an explanation of the allegations of violence policewoman against the demonstrators.

“Firstly, to be able to strengthen the bilateral relations that we have in the world, but, in addition, to exercise the representation of our country in multilateral spaces, where we want to reaffirm not only the democratic spirit of our country, but also the conviction of being a country always respectful of human rights and always focused on the unrestricted defense of the democratic values ​​which have characterized our nation ”, Duque spoke.

Well, this Thursday, the new chancellor opened the post with a column published in El Tiempo entitled “The country” in unemployment mode “threatens social peace”. There, the official practically blamed point 2.2 of the Final Peace Agreement that the state signed with the FARC guerrillas.

“During the referendum campaign on the agreement with the FARC, I insisted that point 2.2 presented the risk of passing from the country of the conflict to the country” in protest mode and in strike mode “, and it is this is happening, ”the Chancellor said.

The point to which Marta Lucía Ramírez refers is that of political participation, in particular the section in which the guarantees of mobilization and peaceful protest are defined. There, respect for “the guarantee to the mobilization and peaceful demonstration within the framework of the constitutional right to freedom of expression, assembly and opposition, promoting dialogue and civility in the treatment of this type of activity, without prejudice to the exercise of the legitimate authority of the State in accordance with international standards relating to the protection of the right to protest ”.

For the vice-president, “it is good to have the space open to social protest, but a country in intermittent unemployment is not viable and leads to impoverishment, instability and social unrest. We must grow, create jobs, supply cities, continue to build infrastructure and housing for there to be development and, above all, for there to be social peace. We are living in very difficult days for Colombia and the portents are uncertain ”.

He assures in his column that the government’s efforts to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and accelerate vaccination, are affected because many Colombians have come to demonstrate for different issues and the frustrations he claims to share.

“Obviously, the lack of jobs for our young people and our women, the poverty, the corruption in our society, the insecurity in the streets, the lack of recognition of the value that each one has for the simple fact of existing, the fear of getting infected., businesses that are not yet licensed to operate at full capacity, goods stranded in ports and highways generate unease, frustration and anger, ”he said.

In the national government, he says employment and well-being have recovered at an unprecedented rate in recent months. “Now vandalism, curfews and blockades in the context of strikes will mean yet another fall,” he said.

He shares in his column data from the Ministry of Finance which asserts that unemployment costs 480,000 million pesos per day, “Enough to subsidize housing for 24,000 families, or build 2,500 kilometers of tertiary roads every day. This situation unfairly harms consumers, businesses and the Colombian people “.

The new chancellor has asserted that the exercise of protest is a right, but it is an obligation to do so while taking care of the public heritage, employment and well-being of Colombians. “It is the duty of the State to guarantee the exercise of our rights for all and to guarantee order in our society, but this calls on all of us, without exception, to do our part. Who benefits from this chaos? What’s the next step in your scenario? He wondered.

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