No to Iván Duque's neoliberal policies
Statement from the CLACSO Member Centers (Colombia) and the Steering Committee on the National Strike and social mobilizations against the tax reform and the neoliberal policies of the Iván Duque Government
The Steering Committee and Member Centers of CLACSO (Colombia) express their recognition and support for the broad social mobilization that the Colombian people have been carrying out throughout the country since April 28th in rejection of the policies of the Iván Duque administration. The initial call to action was made against the tax reform proposal submitted by the Executive Branch to Congress for approval.
It is a regressive and recessionary project that, in the best neoliberal style, maintains all the privileges for the owners of finance and big businessmen and intends that the workers and the population in general pay for the economic crisis, aggravated by the pandemic, but which came before.
However, the mobilization has gone beyond the rejection of the tax reform project. There has also been a massive condemnation of the massacres and the ongoing assassination of social leaders and former FARC combatants., which occur daily, without the government taking any action to stop them.
Discontent has also been expressed against the irresponsible and cynical handling of the pandemic by the National Government. Colombia is currently among the four countries with the highest number of daily deaths, and the vaccination process has been extremely slow.
Faced with this massive social mobilization, the National Government has responded in two ways: First, by refusing to withdraw the reform and insisting on negotiating it with the parties in its coalition with minor adjustments. As on other occasions, it refuses to speak with the social movements, students, indigenous groups, and farmers that make up the National Strike Committee. However, The strength of the mobilization forced him to announce his retirement on May 2nd.
The second response, coordinated with some mayors and governors, has been a fierce crackdown by the military, leaving an undetermined number of people dead, wounded, missing, and detained in recent days. This entire reaction intensified last Friday after former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez tweeted a call for the military to respond to the protesters with their standard-issue weapons, and it was further exacerbated by the presidential order of May 1st declaring military assistance in the cities.
It is true that, as in all processes of large-scale social mobilization, acts of vandalism have occurred, partly explained by the extremely serious conditions of poverty and hunger experienced by many sectors of the population. However, the vast majority of popular demonstrations have been entirely peaceful. But the National Government, the oversight bodies, and the mainstream media at its service insist on showing only these incidents, concealing the magnitude of the discontent and the social mobilization.
At the moment it is difficult to predict the course of this mobilization, we call on the international community, the academy committed to the defense of democracy and human rights, and human rights organizations worldwide to stand in solidarity with the Colombian people, demanding an end to the repression unleashed against them by the National Government.
We demand guarantees for a just, massive, creative social mobilization with broad territorial reach. To our youth who sustain the struggle for the dignity of the Colombian people, all our appreciation, recognition, and gratitude. Their struggle led to the National Government having to withdraw the disastrous tax reform bill.
Colombia, May 2, 2021
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