Complaint about the violence and call for an end to the use of military force in peaceful protests in Colombia

Educators of young people in Colombia, trained in critical, reflective, and autonomous thinking that allows them to understand reality within the local and national context, have led a major national strike since April 28th to protest and defend their rights against the regressive policies of the current Colombian regime and the harmful government proposals regarding taxation, healthcare, pensions, and labor. These proposals, in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic, exacerbate the gap between rich and poor and, in the case of Colombia, according to the latest DANE report, will increase the number of families living in poverty, excluded from adequate food, healthcare, education, and employment opportunities. These measures further endanger the majority of the population while the establishment, represented by the mega-rich, bureaucrats, and politicians, continues to concentrate wealth through political corruption, administrative inefficiency, spending on armed conflicts, and the squandering of public funds. Likewise, these proposed policies will lead to the impoverishment of a middle class already mired in severe financial problems due to the strangulation of their businesses as a result of the health crisis.

Since April 28, against all odds, Colombians have taken to the streets en masse in a democratic and peaceful manner to demand justice, equity and inclusion, and to protest against so much abuse, misrule and authoritarianism of the national security regimes, typical of the dictatorships of the Southern Cone in the 70s.

The Colombian people need the solidarity of the national and international community in the face of the escalating repression under the euphemism of the current regime's "military control of the population," described as "military assistance," which has resulted in disproportionate use of force against young people and peaceful protesters throughout the country. An unjustifiable expression of this escalating violence is called Cali massacre On the night of May 3, 2021, violating human rights and international agreements on participation, justice, and conflict resolution, an open war was waged against the citizenry, pitting different sectors of the population against each other in Cali, and in turn, armed soldiers against unarmed civilians. Meanwhile, the media outlets controlled by the regime distort reality.

Last Sunday, May 02, 2021, after six days of massive protests, President Iván Duque Márquez announced in a televised address that he would withdraw the proposed tax law, believing that the mobilization would subside. However, the strike decided to continue until negotiations could begin with the active sectors participating in the strike: Indigenous people, youth, students, workers, the self-employed, micro-entrepreneurs, farmers, truck drivers, and many other sectors of the population. On May 03, as a result of popular pressure due to the proposed increases in other sectors, such as transportation, Minister Carrasquilla, author of the tax, health, and pension reforms, resigned, defying—in the typical style of tyrants—and deceiving the peaceful protesters. The result of the military harassment is the murder, abuse and disappearance of more than 150 young people in the trade corridor in Cali and Llano Grande Palmira, among other intermediate cities (Manizales, Neiva, Ibagué, among others) that have not yet reported the results of the violence.

Since Monday, May 3, there have been no food shortages in the cities of Western Colombia (Cali, Armenia, Popayán, and Pasto), demonstrating the power of the strike and its strength as a mechanism of pressure on the regime. The National Strike Committee (CNP) has been urging the government since 2019 to find an institutional solution to the Colombian social and economic crisis, which has been arrogantly rejected by the proposals of democratic and popular sectors. Therefore, the CNP reiterates the following issues: i. Withdrawal of Bill 010 on health and strengthening of mass vaccination, ii. Basic income of one legal monthly minimum wage. iii. Defense of national production (agricultural, industrial, artisanal, and peasant). Subsidies for MSMEs and employment with rights, and a policy that defends food sovereignty and security. iv. Free tuition and no to alternating school hours. v. No discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, and vi. No privatizations and repeal of Decree 1174. Faced with indifference to the plight of the people, the CNP has called for a new multi-sectoral mass mobilization next Wednesday, May 5, 2021.

Meanwhile, at various protest sites (sit-ins) across the country (Cali, Bogotá, Medellín, Neiva, Armenia, Manizales, Cartagena, etc.), young protesters are being attacked, shot, raped, have their eyes gouged out, and are being tortured, detained, and disappeared. The final toll is still imprecise, but it can already be stated that it exceeds 40 deaths, 1.000 detentions, 500 injuries, and 18 eye injuries. In the Cali massacre on the night of May 3, 2021, a full-scale military offensive was deployed, involving raids on homes, bombings, gunfire from helicopters, and the detention and murder of unarmed citizens in a scorched-earth style, all with the approval of departmental authorities and General Zapateiro, Commander of the National Army, who launched the offensive at midnight. 

Colombia is at a critical juncture for the exercise of freedoms and democracy. Credibility and trust are nonexistent in the face of an unjust and violent government that orders the shooting, without any institutional oversight body (ombudsman, prosecutor's office, attorney general's office) being able to intervene, since, following the logic of dictatorships, they are co-opted by the government. From the CLACSO Working Group on Political Agroecology We urgently call upon the international community to support the effective protection of human rights in Colombia, through pronouncements and monitoring in favor of the demilitarization of cities and the cessation of massacres.

5 of May 2021th
CLACSO Working Group
Political agroecology

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