'This progress cannot be lost,' ProAntioquia, on Petro's event in Medellín

President Gustavo Petro , during the cabinet meeting on June 24, spoke about the presence of leaders of criminal organizations, currently serving sentences in local prisons , at a public event in Medellín.

According to EL TIEMPO, at least nine bosses, heirs of alias 'Don Berna' , were identified in the so-called Oficina de Envigado and other criminal organizations in the Aburrá Valley, who would have left the prison in the municipality of Itagüí to attend an event that generated controversy due to the public presence of criminals with current sentences for crimes such as homicide, conspiracy to commit a crime, among others.

(You can read: The laws that the Senate president signed and that Petro did not want to sign ).

To this, Petro responded that he did not bring criminals to the La Alpujarra stage, but rather that they were " people in rehabilitation ."

" They attack this because the gangs know the truth, who spoke with them, and who negotiated it. In Medellín, I didn't put criminals on the stage; mayors and others spoke with criminals. Be careful with this, the press erases it and forgets a universal principle of justice: whoever is in prison is not a criminal, but a person in rehabilitation ," the head of state expressed.

ProAntioquia speaks out

Shortly after the president signed the labor reform bill, ProAntioquia issued a statement on the matter.

(We recommend: It's law! Government celebrates presidential approval of labor reform .)

In a lengthy statement, he mentioned that one of the greatest achievements of Medellín and Antioquia is " having removed social recognition from illegality. One of our most profound conquests was achieving that being a criminal had no prestige ," also mentioning that these advances " cannot be lost ."

Later, the organization mentioned that something like what happened at the head of state's event in the administrative center of Antioquia last Saturday " cannot be repeated ."

(You may be interested in: Gustavo Petro enacted the Mental Health Law: what it contains and how it will be applied ).

" It is an affront to the victims, to public ethics, to the pain of a region that has paid a high price for confronting crime, and to the institutions that uphold the rule of law ," he says.

And he concluded by saying: " We believe in an Antioquia that is not divided. An Antioquia that cares for itself, that respects itself. Because the dignity of Antioquia, when defended with courage and fortitude, inspires all of Colombia ."

PORTFOLIO