Reasons due to the difficult weather conditions in the jurisdiction of the municipality of California, Santander, and the Pramo de Santurbn, led the Presidency of the Republic to postpone the visit to the area, which was scheduled for this Wednesday, October 26, by of President Gustavo Petro and several of his ministers, including the head of the Environment and Sustainable Development portfolio, Susana Muhamad.
This was stated to Vanguardia.com by the mayor of California, Genny Gamboa Guerrero, who explained that there is still no new date for the Colombian president's visit. The official added that the difficult transit through the access roads to the municipality, affected by the rains of the last week, prevented the normal development of logistical support for the President's visit.
"We learned that even the Army had problems accessing the area" due to the issue of roads and weather conditions in the Pramo de Santurbn area, which would prevent arrival by helicopter."
In addition, the Mayor of California rejected “the news that is given about public order in our territory. They are unfounded. In California, and the police authorities can verify it, there are no violent actors who are present and disturb public order...”.
Residents of California assured Vanguardia.com of their discomfort at the postponement of President Gustavo Petro's visit, since there is an interest in knowing the position of the National Government on the legalization and formalization of gold mining in this area, both with or without mining titles.
In her turn, the mayor of California, Genny Gamboa Guerrero, will ask the Colombian president to "definitively deny the environmental license to Minesa."
Context a complex region
On October 6, the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Susana Muhamad, during her visit to Bucaramanga, warned of the risk of corruption by "mining mafias" in the area of illegal gold extraction in the Pramo de Santurbn area.
“It is necessary to monitor the closing process of Eco-Oro. It is shameful what is happening (in the municipality of California) and dangerous for the security of Santander. We are having interests, outside of any legitimate social interest, in a mafia exploitation of gold with risk to human rights. It is very worrying that all this could lead to violence. This must be a priority of the National Government and also of the local authorities. We cannot let a situation grow that later becomes a serious problem”.
Vanguardia has denounced in recent months, through several journalistic investigations, how mercury and dynamite traffic, used in the illegal extraction of gold, operates in the California area, without the control of the authorities. Traces of this mercury have been detected in the Surata River, which supplies the Bucaramanga Metropolitan Aqueduct.
It is also stated that some 600 people are currently extracting gold illegally in the California mining area, where three active mines were identified, located in the Pramo de Santurbn area and that belonged to the Eco-Oro mining title. who left the area in 2019.
On October 19, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development was scheduled to hold a hearing with the California miners, in the town's urban area, but days before, Minister Susana Muhamad postponed it for a date that has not yet been established. in response to reviewing "some requests and suggestions" from the miners in the area.
Vanguardia learned that the Central Command of the National Police ordered the deployment of a special commission that will be in charge of investigations into illegal mining, mercury trafficking and raising large sums of money from illegal gold mining. In addition, to clarify the death of miner Wilmer Anbal, who was killed in confusing events on October 14 when he was traveling from California to Bucaramanga.
In this regard, the Secretary of the Interior of Santander, Jhon Jaime Ruiz, ratified that the result of the investigations by the authorities is awaited, first in the case of the murder of Wilmer Anbal Parada Ortega and on the allegations of illegal mining in this area of Santander. .