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President Ivan Duque left the city as over 7,000 Indigenous people urge a personal meeting with him.
Colombia's President Ivan Duque Monday night urgently left Bogota to avoid a meeting with the Indigenous Minga that arrived in the capital from the Cauca Department on Sunday.
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Colombia: Indigenous Minga Arrives in Bogota to Meet with Duque
Duque left the city to "do a safety review, address citizen complaints, and evaluate social investments in the Choco Department," the government stated. The President will not attend the beginning of the Bogota Metro works, which was scheduled for 8h00 on Tuesday.
On Monday, the Indigenous peoples, Afro communities and social organizations that integrate the Social Minga, took to the streets of Bogota after traveling for five days and about 600 kilometers from the Cauca Department.
During the peaceful protest, the Minga placed an empty chair in Bolivar Square as a symbol of Duque's place in a face-to-face dialogue with the movement's representatives.
Indigenous and campesino activists are arriving in Bogota to demand a meeting with @IvanDuque over deteriorating security in their communities. Most have travelled from Cauca, the region most impacted by Colombia’s human rights crisis.#Minga #Minga2020pic.twitter.com/kG6hmUXFJv
— Alborada (@alboradanet) October 19, 2020
On October 6, over 7,000 Indigenous people invited the President to a meeting that he never attended in the Cauca Department. A week later, the Minga movement made its way to the capital to demand a personal meeting with Duque.
The government has not commented on when the President will return to the government's headquarters after his last-minute trip to Choco.
The Indigenous peoples and farmers demand Duque's response over the systematic murders of social leaders in the country's interior.
#Colombia | Between Sept. 1 and Oct. 7 of 2019, at least 9 Indigenous people were killed in #Cauca. pic.twitter.com/wps29jd8YI
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) October 18, 2019
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