Colombia’s Minister of Finance Mauricio Cardenas invited protesters representing nearly 50,000 judges and lawyers to a meeting to discuss their grievances, Colombia’s W Radio reported on Wednesday.
The agenda of the meeting will be to discuss how to finance the decongestion of the judicial branch, according to Luis Fernando Otalvaro Calle, president of the National Association of Functionaries and Employees of the Judicial Branch (ASONAL).
“The Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas has invited [us] to a meeting tomorrow [Thursday] at 9AM to the interdepartmental committee to talk about resources for the decongestion of the judiciary branch,” said the ASONAL president.
Otalvaro also mentioned that the strike had assembled judges and attorneys from every city in Colombia and called it a great response to the cause.
MORE: 48K lawyers, judges of Colombia’s judicial branch to go on strike
The minister of justice stated on Monday that the government does not have the capital to complete the decongestion program of 2014, which aims to reduce the accumulation of cases in the justice system. At the meeting to be held on Thursday, the parties will debate how to finance the program.
The president of the union, Luis Fernando Otalvaro Calle, will be negotiating on behalf of the striking judges and attorneys.
Judges and attorneys are not the only ones currently on strike in Colombia. Earlier this week, 15,000 taxis drivers in Colombia’s second largest city, Medellin, went on strike to protest the arrival of ride-share company, Uber, as well as other forms of so-called “transportation piracy.”
MORE: Colombia’s taxi drivers on strike, furious over arrival of ride-share company Uber
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