Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Colquiri (Agenzia Fides) - "How sad when reading the newspaper this morning that some of our brothers in Colquiri, who live in the same city and who are also relatives of the miners, clashed on Saturday, October 6, causing 23 injured, two of them very serious. We are for social relations, to talk, not to hurt each other, we cannot limit our interests to our selfishness," said His Exc. Mgr. Sergio Gualberti, Coadjutor of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in his homily on October 7 at the Cathedral of this city.
On September 29, the government assigned the joint management of the entire area of the Rosario to the Corporación Minera de Bolivia (Comibol) and Empresa Minera Colquiri workers, which is state-owned. These, however, questioned the sharing of management. Meanwhile Comibol recruited staff in the area to do the job more efficiently. So on Saturday, October 6 the two groups of miners clashed in Colquiri causing the intervention of 350 men of the police force. The President of Bolivia, at a press conference, appealed to the two groups to avoid the use of violence and reflect on the situation.
The note sent to Fides Agency reports that Mgr. Gualberti asked the miners to turn to God in these times of stress, because He is always with them. He also asked the community to pray for the situation in Colquiri, exhorting them to "put aside the violence and to seek sincere dialogue and without interest in order to obtain the solution to the conflict." (CE) (Agenzia Fides 09/10/2012)
