Given the holding of international football competitions amidst the political and health crisis that the Colombian people are experiencing
Given the political and health crisis that has been taking place in Colombia since CLACSO Working Group on Sport, Culture and Society We express our disagreement with the holding of professional football competitions in this country.
To date, the demonstrations of the Colombian people, the political and human rights crisis, have resulted in 51 homicides, 611 people injured by disproportionate actions of the military forces, 89 human rights defenders attacked in the context of the demonstrations, 87 victims of gender-based violence, 1502 people detained, most arbitrarily, 12 raids, most illegally, 900 complaints of abuse of power by the military forces, and 89 people disappeared.
Faced with this scenario of institutional violence, the fact that the ball continues to roll despite the current situation of social oppression in the country, and after the explicit violations of human rights towards those who have exercised their right to protest, is a clear expression of the lack of empathy and shows forcefully that the business of football and its economy is more important than human dignity itself.
The ball should not be stained with the blood of Colombians, and football, seen as a spectacle that also constitutes the identity of thousands of fans, cannot be used to divert attention from the current situation in the country. Because, like in football, for years that country has remained trapped in the game of inequality, unemployment, and poverty, winning only the match of indifference toward its basic needs for a minimum of a dignified life.
Now is not the time to turn our backs on the reality of the country or to use football as a smokescreen to hide the massacres and human rights violations perpetrated by a government that seeks to legitimize its actions through atrocities committed against its citizens. Let us not forget that in 1978, in Argentina, the noise of the World Cup goal celebrations drowned out the voices of those being tortured by Videla's dictatorship, and the cries of mothers searching for their children disappeared by the state.
We call on the Colombian Football Federation and the South American Football Confederation to abandon their plans to hold the Copa América.We urge the suspension of national competitions and a firm stance on the Copa Libertadores matches being played amidst the violence in Colombia. It is time to prioritize life over the commercial transactions agreed upon for these international sporting events.
We reject the complicity of the media to conceal or fail to report on the demands of the Colombian people in defense of life amidst the pandemic. This people is tired of broken promises, state corruption, and the government's classist practices. They are so far willing to risk the current Covid-19 pandemic to peacefully, massively, and across the country protest the assassination of social leaders and human rights defenders, the repression of youth, the excessive exploitation of natural resources, and reforms to the healthcare system that endanger lives.
Football cannot be a distraction at a time when life is at stake on every street corner and in every square of the country and in various parts of the continent. The Colombian and Latin American people love football, but only if it promotes a future where social rights and human life are guaranteed. Without these minimum conditions, we cannot play, and we certainly don't want to.
We demand that democratic principles be upheld and that the lives of those exercising their right to express dissent against the Colombian government's regressive measures be protected. May the dignity of the people, the care and respect for nature, democracy, and solidarity prevail in this crisis.
Strength to Colombia and its people, strength to the entire continent!
20 of may 2021
CLACSO Working Group
Sport, culture and society
This statement expresses the position of the Working Group Sport, culture and society and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.
