Could the state of Antioquia separate from Colombia to become the 13th country in South America? A group of public figures and personalities from Antioquia are appealing to Governor Luis Pérez to do exactly that. The request is being made after the national government sided with the western state of Chocó in a land dispute between the two regions, transferring four sectors from Antioquia to Chocó.
“We request that the governor of Antioquia immediately study, elaborate, propose and bring to the public a referendum that consults the will of the people of the Antioquia and remain attached to an obtrusive central government that exercises rampant and unconstitutional power, or if they’d like a new entity that confirms our historical boundaries, and want to finally achieve a sovereign, autonomous state with independent character,” stated the letter.
Regionalism and independence is not new in Colombia’s Antioquia state, home to the country’s second largest city, Medellin. Paisas, as the people from the region are called, are fiercely independent people whose ideology typically differ greatly from left-leaning Bogota.
The citizens that signed this request were the following: Carlos Vélez Londoño, Óscar Hoyos Posada, Johel Moreno Sánchez, Octavio Trujillo Palacio, Raúl Tamayo Gaviria, Juan Rafael Cardenas Gutiérrez, Marylu Nicholls, Ella Cecilia Escandón, Juan Carlos Fajardo, Ana González Salazar, Silvia Peláez de Restrepo, Ignacio Arboleda, Stephania Paredes, Christian Coral, Simón Pérez Montoya, Valentina Valderrama, Alicia de Pérez, José Alfredo Daza, Enrique Llano, Felipe Coral, Juan José Giraldo, Jorge Duque, Jaime Alberto García, Olegario Lopera, Álvaro Restrepo, Julio Enrique González, Jesús Vallejo, Luis Enrique Echeverry, Luis Guillermo Gómez, Rafael Uribe, Andrés de Bedout, Carlos Eugenio González, Gloria Eugenia Echeverri, Fernando Giraldo, Emilia González, Rodrigo Merino, Sofía León, Óscar Urrea, Ángela Salazar, Juan Pedro Arias, Sebastián Bedoya, Leonidas Gallego, Leonor Arango, Luis Javier Gómez, Andrés Trujillo, Carlos Alberto Pérez, Mario Londoño, Carlos Bernardo Restrepo, Carlos Gómez H.
