Some critics level to mismanagement within the salt trade as a part of the cause of L. a. Guajira’s financial instability.
From 1941 to 2002, the nationwide executive was once in control of the salt mines, first throughout the Attic of the Republic and next throughout the Institute of Commercial Building (IFI).
However Indigenous communities chafed on the federal keep watch over. They asserted their rights to the dimension and in the end struck an pledge with the federal government to form a unused entity known as the Maritime Salt Residences of Manaure (SAMA).
It was once conceived as a public-private partnership. The municipal executive of Manaure holds a 24-percent stake within the corporate, life 3 Indigenous associations — the Sumain Ichi, the Waya Wayuu and the Asocharma — supremacy the extra.
However within the twenty years because it took keep watch over of the salt trade, SAMA has confronted grievance for failing to generate a benefit, even then handing its management to a non-public operator, the Fat Workforce.
Consistent with a 2023 resolution from the Constitutional Court docket, SAMA has a debt of greater than $5m. In 2020, staff held a crash that lasted greater than 600 days to call for unpaid wages.
Robinson Ramos, the president of the Sintrasales salt staff union, accused SAMA of now not actively generating salt however rather depending on its reserves.
“We worry every day that the company will arrive at a point that cannot sustain itself,” Ramos stated. “This would generate a great economic and social impact in our municipality.”
Miguel Epieyu, a Wayuu chief who is a part of the Sumain Ichi affiliation, additionally famous that the equipment old to procedure, blank and shipping the salt has fallen into disrepair. The native pier, as an example, has collapsed.
He stated the issues started when the federal government became over the salt crops to SAMA. A good portion of the prevailing equipment has now not been up to date since 2002.
“There was a transition process when no maintenance was done to existing infrastructure, including the washing plant and the pier,” Miguel defined.
“The right thing to do would be to hand over an active industry, not a bunch of junk, ruins and decaying infrastructure.”