The National Unemployment Committee, the main organizer of the protests in Colombia, announced on Tuesday the temporary suspension of the mobilizations that began on April 28. This, however, does not mean the end of the demonstrations against the government of Iván Duque.
“We have decided to temporarily interrupt the recurring mobilizations that we had been doing on Wednesdays,” Francisco Maltés, president of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), said at a press conference.
The union leader assured that “social mobilization will continue because the causes that have generated it remain in force” and in that sense announced a “great concert” next Sunday and the beginning of a social dialogue to build several bills with your requests.
The Unemployment Committee does not represent all dissatisfied sectors in Colombia, but it is one of the most visible organizations that have called for protests.
Make the protest claims a reality
For July 20, the Committee called a concert and a large mobilization in Congress “to deliver bills,” Maltese reported.
With this, the Unemployment Committee hopes in reality to convert its demands, which include a basic income for the poorest population and free education, will exceed for the lowest strata for up to five years.
“We hope, of course, that Congress does not fail Colombians, just as President Duque has failed him in solving the emergency document,” Maltés added.
At the beginning of June, the organization had suspended the talks it had held with the Dique government since the beginning of May without reaching any agreement to defuse the crisis, which has been going on for more than 50 days.
At the height of contagion and deaths from COVID-19, protesters take to the streets every day to demand from the president a change of course in his policies, an end to police repression and a more supportive state in the face of the ravages caused by the pandemic, that plunged 42% of the population into poverty.
At least 61 people have died since the protests began, according to authorities and the Ombudsman, which oversees human rights. Two of the deceased were in uniform. However, some human rights organizations speak of at least 74 fatalities, at least 20 of them due to police shooting.
According to the Ministry of Defense, about 2,500 people, including civilians and members of the security forces, were injured in this context.
The mobilizations are mostly festive and peaceful during the day, but at night they tend to turn bloody, with strong clashes between civilians and police.
The UN, the United States, the European Union and international organizations have denounced serious excesses committed by the security forces.
there are “credible complaints” about 34 deaths in the framework of the protests, of which 20 apparently occurred at the hands of police, and among them 16 were by bullets fired with the intention of “killing”.
A recognition of the Colombian youth
In power since 2018, the president faces popular anger one year before the elections from which his successor must emerge. An eventual agreement with the National Unemployment Committee is seen as a step towards the end of the crisis, although not a definitive solution.
“We hope that the national government will show a show of political will,” Maltese added.
The mobilizations began against the government’s already withdrawn tax reform, but lost intensity in recent weeks with a few days of low attendance.
Health authorities link the agglomerations of the protests with the unstoppable increase in infections and deaths from COVID-19, and the Minister of Health, Fernando Ruiz, said on Monday that the Unemployment Committee “must understand that the epidemiological situation does not give more” .
However, Maltese responded on Monday that the endless third peak of the pandemic “could have been avoided if the government had not delayed two months in starting vaccination.”
The president of the CUT made a special recognition to the youth “who have played a transcendental role in this battle and in the battles that follow,” and stressed that the Committee achieved “for the first time in Colombia that a social agenda is one of public debate. “.
Finally, he stressed that “this strike has had important victories”, such as the collapse of the tax and health reforms, “the result of social mobilization”, and the resignation of the Minister of Finance, Alberto Carrasquilla, and the chancellor, Claudia Blum. .
With information from AFP and EFE
