At least 700 displaced people return to Chocó and Risaralda after overcoming the internal conflict of almost three years

▲ Passenger buses have resumed service.Afp Photo

Afp

The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, September 7, 2024, p. 23

Bogotá. A strike by transporters in Colombia that was in its fifth day ended yesterday after an agreement was reached with the government on the increase in the price of diesel, President Gustavo Petro announced.

We have resolved the truckers’ strike faster than they thought and in the best way possible.the president said.

After arduous negotiations that lasted until dawn, the parties agreed to a gradual increase in the price of fuel used by most freight vehicles: the first increase in the price, which was at $2.24 per gallon (3.8 liters), will be equivalent to 10 cents. On December 1, it will rise for the second time by the same amount.

Images in local media showed this morning the transporters sounding their horns in a sign of victory, while unblocking various roads in the country.

On another note, some 700 indigenous people who have been camping in a Bogotá park since late 2021, displaced by the internal war in the troubled departments of Chocó and Risaralda, will return to their communities starting today, the government announced yesterday. We have made a huge effort to build decent living conditions that will allow them to return.said the director of the Unit for Victims of the Armed Conflict, Lilia Solano.

Hundreds of Emberas who had been living in the open air, with wood stoves and precarious bathrooms, celebrated the news.