What's happening with youth protest and police in Colombia
By Manuela Vega Toronto Star
Fri., May 14, 2021
5 min. read
Article was updated 28 mins ago
The demonstrations in Bogotá, Colombia kick off with musical performances, theatrical shows and people in traditional dress; they’re like festivals. Young people fill the capital’s major transitways and the Plaza de Simon Bolivar, a downtown square that are home to several culturally and politically significant buildings, to have their voices heard, Yaneth Ordoñez, an artist and high school teacher at the protests said.
But this time, the government has met civilians with bullets.
On April 28, Colombians protested, in large part, as a response to tax increases proposed by president Iván Duque’s government. Critics said the proposal would have weighed heavily on lower and middle class citizens — especially as the pandemic has increased economic hardship — while sparing the wealthy. The proposal was eventually withdrawn, and the finance minister resigned. However, the protests, blockades and police violence has persisted across the country as additional demands to address poverty and inequality are not met.
Demonstrations have continued on for weeks in smaller towns and major cities such as Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali, where police killings prompted the United Nations human rights office to issue a statement urging Colombia’s government to protect the rights of protesters last week.
As of May 12, police in Colombia have killed at least 39 people, according to the nation’s human rights organization Indepaz and non-governmental group Temblores. Dozens of young people have been victims of attacks to their eyes, with several losing an eye due to police aggression, several thousand have been injured, and 16 people have been sexually assaulted, the organizations reported.
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