BRIEF HISTORY OF FEDERAL ANTIOQUIA

       The plenipotentiary secretary, official spokesman and historical adviser of the Antioquia governments José Manuel Restrepo (accompanied by Juan del Corral), at the beginning of the 19th century, was clear that Antioquia should advocate for a federal and autonomous government, as one political scientist would say, a government Decentralized.

       The reasons used by the different provinces that defended the federation in New Granada were basically to follow the steps of the system of government of the nascent United States of America, adhering to its judicial, military and legislative formula. The idea that it was the best way to defend the American peoples from French troops, and who maintained a supposed fidelity to King Ferdinand VII, were no more than political excuses, the fact is that Antioch was present in political debates, and yet , In the fratricidal wars of the decade of 1810 to defend firmly the longed Federal Antioquia.

       The times changed, historical processes finally conceived the republic of Colombia as a centralized nation, and that was consolidated at the beginning of the 20th century, after so many vicissitudes, warlike conflicts, and especially, after the celebrations of the commemorations of the Centennial of the Independence of Colombia in 1910, taking as a reference what happened in Santafe de Bogota in 1810, although it is true that some provinces continued to long for those moments of federative governments, in the case of Antioquia, sentiment has remained alive in some sectors of the region.

       That sentiment awakens every time that the Antioquia leaders feel attacked, or somehow affected by the policies from Bogota, like what happened with a recklessness on the part of the government during the time of the drug traffic between the decades of 1980 and 1990, in Who excluded Antioquia from the map of tourist destinations, aroused not the Antioquia people, but rather the mafia groups, to generate again the feeling of a federal Antioquia, promoting a possible citizen initiative for such a case, but the Situation did not go to greater social consequences.

       Now, in 2017, the problem in the case of Belén de Bajirá, a hamlet that is disputed in local terms by the municipality of Mutatá, on the Antioqueño side, and the municipality of Riosucio, on the Chocoan side, has again generated the Feeling of a federal Antioquia. The case is more of a political than a social character, because the abandonment of such a village has been historical on the one hand and on the other, and has more demagogic and economic ingredients than real interest in the settlers.

       Terms such as the Antioqueña race, which has been abused by opportunists, or the exaltation of the Antioqueños as a region, only affects the social relations of a nation that although it has a consolidated institutionally, is still under construction, and in The extent to which political discourses are radically affected will seriously affect the economy and culture of both regions, which, in the end, those who actually benefit from the conflicts, have been some political and economic leaders, that is, a few people.