Through a brief press release, the Ministry of Mines and Energy was authorized to inform public opinion on Thursday March 2, 2023 that the Engineer Giovanni Franco Sepulveda who held the position of Deputy Minister of Mines, resigned from his position effective today, March 2 this year.

“The Ministry of Mines and Energy thanks the engineer Franco Sepúlveda for his work at the Vice-Ministry and wishes him every success in his new projects. Given the importance of the files carried out by the Vice-Ministry of Mines, the current director of mining formalization of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, Johana Rocha Gómez, will be appointed as the new vice-minister in charge.

Johana Rocha Gómez is a lawyer, with postgraduate studies in human rights, international humanitarian law and political science.

Likewise, he has more than 15 years of professional experience and solid knowledge in international, environmental and mining law.

“The Ministry of Mines and Energy continues to work for a just energy transition, facing the country, to move towards responsible mining, supported by the private sector and hand in hand with communities, seeking a balance between economic, social and environmental. , as one of the main proposals of the government of change”, concludes the communication from the Ministry of Mines.

It should be mentioned that a few days ago members of Congress from Historical pact who make up the bench of the Accidental Commission for the Review and Update of the Mining Code in Colombia, have denounced allegations conflicts of interest of the deputy minister, since according to some parliamentarians, the official would have relationships with multinationals mining companies such as Libero Cooper, a Canadian company that mines copper in the department of Putumayo.

The document was signed by members of Congress, Andrés Cancimance, Leyla Rincón, Cristian Avendaño, Carmen Ramírez, Ermes Pete, Marta Jurado, Jairo Cala, Pablo Catatumbo and Robert Daza.

The statement reads as follows: “The undersigned members of Congress express our concern about the closeness and public support of Deputy Minister of Mines Giovanny Franco Sepúlveda, with mining multinationals such as Aris Mining, Max Resource Corp. and Libero Cobre, expressed in different messages from his Twitter account.

In order to make the complaint effective, the trills were cited in which, in the context of his duties as Deputy Minister of Mines, the official met with representatives of multinationals that carry out mining work in Colombia.

“In November 2022, the Minga Association, the citizen control office of Mocoa and the representative of Putumayo, Andrés Cancimance, presented the request for the declaration of conflict of interest of the current Deputy Minister of Mines for his relationship with Libero Cobre, due to his teaching activities at the Faculty of Mines of the National University of Medellín, faculty that has signed an agreement with said multinational”, adds the communicated.

In the text, they add that: “As the Ministry of Mines knows, the Canadian company Libero Cobre suspended its mining concession contracts in Mocoa Putumayo, for violation of the municipal territorial order and overlapping with eight environmental determinants, among which: forest reserves, moors, wetlands and round water. Thus, any public demonstration of support for the multinational implies ignoring the decisions of the competent authorities on the violation by the multinational of the territorial planning and the environment, as well as the prior consultation of the ethnic peoples.

It should be mentioned that the dissatisfaction of the members of Congress goes further and they assure that if the President Gustavo Petro has taken a position on the mining project in Santurbán of the Minesa company, the vice-minister of the portfolio has shared messages of support for this mining operation on his social networks.

In this order of ideas, the parliamentarians warned that the actions of Giovanny Franco generate a serious risk for public goods, due to possible international arbitration procedures that companies in the sector could insert.