Condemns the militarization of territories and police violence in Colombia

Colombian society, once again, is the victim of violations and abuses of its most basic freedoms and rights. Since April 28, when protests began in various cities across the country against the tax and healthcare reforms sought by President Iván Duque's government, violations of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law have not ceased, with the direct participation of state security forces and the acquiescence of the national government and some local governments. Various civil society organizations and international bodies have documented and denounced these acts of violence on a daily basis.

As a working group, we express our deepest and strongest rejection of institutional and indiscriminate violence and the death policies orchestrated or not combated by the Colombian State, and in particular by an administration like that of President Iván Duque and his cabinet, which rhetorically and infamously claims to represent and protect the life, honor, legality, and well-being of the Colombian people.

We strongly condemn the current Colombian government's decision to respond to citizen, popular, and civic protests with horror, police force, and stigmatization as a means of silencing the people's legitimate demands for rights. It is outrageous that the government's primary strategy for suppressing growing social mobilization is brutal repression and the militarization of various cities across the country.

We stand in solidarity with the denunciation, before national and international oversight bodies that guarantee the defense of citizens' rights, of a government that is promoting deadly economic and social policies, without investigating the murders, torture, sexual violence, and disappearances of those who have mobilized and exercised their legitimate right to protest. An expression of this, which cannot be hidden and must be forcefully denounced and amplified internationally, occurred precisely on the night of May 4th with the militarization of several cities across the country, restricting communications and access to internet services. 

We emphatically condemn the systematic violations of the civil, political, and social rights of citizens and reject the actions of the national government of Iván Duque, the police forces, and the army; we hold them entirely responsible for the abuses, threats, deaths, and the bloodshed of Colombians that continues to this day in the country. We support the call to defend democracy and the right to protest, and we demand that the national government listen to and respond to the citizens' demands for justice, freedom, and dignity.

6 May 2021
CLACSO Working Group
Collective memories and resistance practices

This statement expresses the position of the Working Group Collective memories and resistance practices and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.