Save the Gorgon » To the West

Something about to embarrass us in front of the civilized world in Colombia because it could never happen in a country with minimal respect for protected natural areas.

I’m talking about the fact that the navy has already started the construction of a military base – unconstitutional of course – in the Colombian and world-unique Isla Gorgona National Natural Park. This is hardly explained, as the island combines a unique wealth of terrestrial fauna and flora with a rich marine life, as it has suffered environmental destruction as a prison, but has in turn been preserved for 23 years.

And in fact, since the concentration camp there has disappeared, it is a public nature park that has been under the control of the Ministry of Environment for 38 years, where until recently there was no activity incompatible with taking care of the environment. all scientific rigor. . Because this story is exceptional, Gorgona is also unique on earth.

But we are days away from starting the construction of a huge quay and a large military base in Gorgona, which will destroy the basic features of the island and its relationship with the sea, unique in the entire Colombian Pacific. And put it under the control of the Navy and the Department of Defense, which does not consider the environment as its legal mission, as the Department of the Environment does.

How to explain the fact that this crime is being committed in Colombia, like a horror movie, despite the rejection of the academic community, including the Gorgona Natural Park National Scientific Advisory Council?see link) and the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences?

Easy. Because the base, troops, dock, and ships of the National Navy, as well as anything they intend to mount, is to maintain a radar for the United States armed forces, a country that is funding this blow to the natural and environment. Colombian heritage and our national sovereignty.

Well-known Colombian scientist Ernesto Guhl rightly wondered if a naval base could be built—without gringo radar, of course—on another 1,300-kilometer stretch of the Colombian Pacific coast.

We are having an attack on Colombia that embarrasses ANLA, whose environmental license is supposed to protect the national environment, because it obviously has to deny it. But not only did it deliver, it only processed in 29 days and confirmed on December 31, 2015, very favorable dates for scammers in this country. They acted in such bad faith that the scientific community barely learned of this nonsense a year later, and since 2020, the Ministry of the Environment has not appointed a director at Gorgona, where Navy soldiers today run the park and will later manage it. They’re mounting the base and the radar.

The positive side is that this attack can be easily avoided. Because the work begins and these are not the current government, but the two previous governments that act like brothers here. Then, with the applause of Gustavo Petro, Environment Minister Susana Muhamad, and as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Colombia, all he has to do is order the construction of the military base to be halted. return scaffolding and radar and Gorgona to the Ministry of the Environment.

We Colombians must turn to him to make these decisions.