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Diego Mesa, Minister of Mines and Energy, made a strong call to protesters and authorities in Yumbo to stop all kinds of vandalism in the vicinity of the municipality’s fuel supply plants.
The official appeared on his Twitter account from where he issued a video accompanied by the following message:
I make an URGENT call for the vandalism near the fuel supply plants in Yumbo to stop. These facilities store highly flammable liquids and gases, and these attacks put the lives of workers and residents of the municipality at serious risk.
Mesa’s statements occurred after a strong outbreak was reported in said municipality, apparently in the vicinity of a service station, who completed 24 hours of tensions between protesters and Esmad, the latter in work to unblock the barricades placed on roads that connect Yumbo with the capital of the Valley, Cali.
This is the video, contributed by the communications office of the Ministry of Mines and Energy:
A horrible night: Yumbo on red alert for clashes between protesters and Esmad
The events date back to the night of May 16, when the Esmad began the work of unblocking the roads that connect this municipality with the city of Cali, 20 minutes by car.
According to different reports sent through Twitter, the first clashes occurred in La Estancia, neighborhood adjacent to fuel storage tanks, owned by Ecopetrol, from where gasoline and derivatives are distributed to Cali and the southwestern region of the country.
The tensions led to acts of vandalism in the municipality: Attacks were reported on the mayor’s office, the mayor’s residence and a Police CAI (immediate attention center). In addition, as a result of clashes between protesters and the Public Force, 4 injured by gunshot wounds, people with trauma derived from the impact of traumatic ammunition, and people affected by the inhalation of tear gas, used by the authorities to deter demonstrations.
Despite the calls of the authorities to stop the actions between protesters and Esmad, on the night of May 17 new confrontations took place, the most relevant being an explosion near the oil company’s facilities, a fact that led to the declaration of the MinMinas requesting the cessation of all acts of vandalism due to the enormous risk it represents for the lives of the inhabitants of Yumbo.
The explosion occurred between the Primax fuel substation and the Ecopetrol headquarters, on Calle 15 with Carrera 10, according to The country, From Cali.
The conflict in Yumbo has provoked reactions on the Colombian political spectrum. On the one hand, the senator for the Democratic Pole, Wilson Arias, who has widely disseminated videos recorded at La Estancia, wrote around 9:00 pm:
“They tell me that in a huge and macabre provocation, they have blown up an Ecopetrol Yumbo tank. Like the Reichstag fire in Germany, which preceded the holocaust, dark forces want to ignite war and massive slaughter against the people in Colombia. The 19 march for millions ”, which he accompanied with the video of the outbreak published in this note.
From elsewhere, the representative to the Chamber for the Democratic Center, Margarita Restrepo, issued a message of solidarity with the inhabitants of Yumbo while condemning the “urban terrorists who want to kill what they find in their path. I hope that the public force will restore order and protect the public from the arsonists who are in the streets ”.
While Yumbo completed 24 hours of tensions, its mayor, Jhon Jairo Santamaría, Liberal Party, asked the president Ivan Duque elisten to young people and guarantee the exercise of the right to social protest, one of the points demanded by the National Unemployment Committee to initiate negotiations that avert the Colombian crisis.
