With a new national strike, Colombia’s anti-government protests enter their fourth week on Wednesday.
The National Strike Committee, which coordinates the strike and peaceful anti-government marches, called for a new days of strikes to pressure the government into negotiations.
Attempts to violently repress the protests against far-right President Ivan Duque have allegedly killed more than 50 people and triggered permanent protests throughout Colombia.
The protests have spurred the resignation of Finance Minister Alberto Carrasquilla and Foreign Minister Claudia Blum and criminal charges before the International Criminal Court against Duque and Defense Minister Diego Molano.
The president on Monday ordered the “maximum deployment” of the security forces on Monday to clear roadblocks that have been set up throughout the country.
Despite rising death toll, protests continue in Colombia psuvanguard.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from psuvanguard.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
(Image: Sergio Fernandez)
Bogota students took to the streets again in September 2019 in protests against corruption, but were brutally repressed by the ESMAD after police infiltrators engaged in vandalism.
In response, students across Colombia rose up to demand the dismantling of the loathed riot police unit on top of measures to curb corruption and government compliance with agreements that ended the 2018 protests.
Teachers joined the students in October that year and indigenous groups, farmers and labor unions joined to call for a national strike in opposition to a tax reform in November 2019.
First national strike
The national strike triggered the largest anti-government protests in more than four decades despite attempts to criminalize the protests.
Women march in Colombia against police sexual violence morningstaronline.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from morningstaronline.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
As Colombia grows closer to China, will it end up giving the U.S. a cold shoulder?
By
May 14, 2021
Chinese President Xi Jinping, fourth from left, speaks to Colombia’s President Ivan Duque, third from right, during a bilateral meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Wednesday, July 31, 2019.
Credit: AP Photo/Andy Wong, Pool
Advertisement
Something unusual is happening in Colombia.
The country that was not long ago described by then-candidate Joe Biden as the keystone of U.S. policy in Latin America and the Caribbean, one that most IR textbooks will tell you has for decades been guided in its foreign policy by a doctrine of