COLOMBIA'S SPRING RIOTS

 

On the 28th of April tens of thousands of people started to protest in many Colombian cities  against the tax reform announced by the  government of President Iván Duque Márquez .

'' When people take to the streets  during a pandemic , it means that the government is more dangerous than the virus '', it was written on the placard of a protester .

Because of the complaint  the finance minister Alberto  Carrasquilla resigned from his position and  on the 2nd of May Duque took a step back withdrawing the project .  According to critics, it would have damaged mostly middle class people and poorer sections of the population already worn out by the economic crisis .

Notwithstanding the president's decision the  protests didn't  stop . They actually widened  becoming radical criticism against the government and their management of the pandemic.  Colombia is in the midst of the third wave with the intensive therapies of all the country on the brink of collapsing .

The decision to militarize the suppression sending the army to the streets against the protestors  caused controversies and condemnations from the UN  and some  ONGs,  like Human Rights Watch and  Amnesty International .  At least 20 people were killed and more than 800 wounded during the protests .

 

 In Cali, the 3rd biggest city in the country,  in western Colombia , the rally was particularly intense and troopers' backlash became brutal . On the 28th of April a cop fired at Marcelo Agredo Inchima , a 17 y.o. boy that was taking part in the protest . On the 2nd  of May another cop shot at the head Nicolás Guerrero ,  a 22 y.o. youngster who was filming the clashes in the north of the city .

''I heard the shots '', said a lawyer witnessing the protest,  ''At first I thought that cops were using rubber bullets, instead they were real weapons . They boy collapsed at my feet  with a dozens of people trying to help him , we saw him agonize ''. The capital Bogota on the 4th May faced a night of violence with about thirty citizens  and sixteen cops wounded  furthermore  different police stations  were set on fire .

Major  Claudia López said that ''the level of violence ,destruction and the attacks against citizens and public assets are actually unusual '' then added a prayer ''I beg the city  and the country to stop and converse '' .

Video and images on the excessive use of violence by cops and the military were shared on social networks inciting the organizers of the protest not to stop and to convene new rallies for the following  days .

 Duque's government, far away from the possibility to be reelected for a new mandate, started a ''dialogue '' strategy with some social movements  to stop el paro nacional, the national strike .

''If the military , trying to protect the city , don't respect  legal limits and uses excessively its power , it does nothing but adds fuel to the fire and foment violence . We've clearly to stop vandals and violent people without trampling  on the constitution  '' wrote  El Espectador '' the only way to come out of the crisis is to accept the dialogue with all political and social forces without exceptions'' . According to the political analyst and journalist  Ariel Ávila, chief of the foundation  Paz y Reconciliación, we will know only in a few days who will be the winner of this clash .

                                                             GIORDANO C., 4sc