[image: Colombias entire cabinet resigns for 2nd time in year]<http://colombiareports.co/colombias-entire-cabinet-resigns-2nd-time-year/> Colombias Entire Cabinet Resigns For 2nd Time In Year<http://colombiareports.co/colombias-entire-cabinet-resigns-2nd-time-year/>
The entire cabinet of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos resigned on Monday as the government is facing the fiercest anti-government protests in recent history and is less than a year Full Article »<http://colombiareports.co/colombias-entire-cabinet-resigns-2nd-time-year/> http://colombiareports.co/new-nationwide-cacerolazo-protest-planned-wednesday/ Sep 2, 2013 New noise protests planned for Wednesday: Colombia Labor Unionposted by Steven Cohen [image: New noise protests planned for Wednesday: Colombia Labor Union]<http://colombiareports.co/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/union_protest1.jpg> (Photo: Wesley Tomaselli) [image: Share Button] <http://www.hupso.com/share/> <http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=twitter&title=New%20noise%20protests%20planned%20for%20Wednesday%3A%20Colombia%20Labor%20Union&url=http://colombiareports.co/new-nationwide-cacerolazo-protest-planned-wednesday/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=facebook&title=New%20noise%20protests%20planned%20for%20Wednesday%3A%20Colombia%20Labor%20Union&url=http://colombiareports.co/new-nationwide-cacerolazo-protest-planned-wednesday/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=googleplus&title=New%20noise%20protests%20planned%20for%20Wednesday%3A%20Colombia%20Labor%20Union&url=http://colombiareports.co/new-nationwide-cacerolazo-protest-planned-wednesday/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=linkedin&title=New%20noise%20protests%20planned%20for%20Wednesday%3A%20Colombia%20Labor%20Union&url=http://colombiareports.co/new-nationwide-cacerolazo-protest-planned-wednesday/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=stumbleupon&title=New%20noise%20protests%20planned%20for%20Wednesday%3A%20Colombia%20Labor%20Union&url=http://colombiareports.co/new-nationwide-cacerolazo-protest-planned-wednesday/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=reddit&title=New%20noise%20protests%20planned%20for%20Wednesday%3A%20Colombia%20Labor%20Union&url=http://colombiareports.co/new-nationwide-cacerolazo-protest-planned-wednesday/> Colombias largest labor union CUT said on Monday that it will be working with students and striking labor groups to organize a third round of nationwide cacerolazo protests. A cacerolazo, explained CUT Secretary General Tarciso Rivera in an interview with Colombia Reports, is an event in which protesters use pots, pans and other household appliances to create as much noise as possible and literally make themselves heard. Organizers are planning the latest one for Wednesday, as a show of continued support for the various national strike movements. Two similar protests last week drew thousands of people to major urban centers across the country. The demonstrations, which went off without any incidents of violence, were commended by President Juan Manuel Santos as prime examples of peaceful, democratic protest. The latest cacerolazo, however, will be the first coordinated national demonstration since last Thursdays student protests degenerated into heavy fighting between police forces and protesters, after right-wing neoparamilitary groups allegedly instigated violent conflict in places like the Plaza Bolivar in downtown Bogota. President Santos has since militarized the Colombian capital, and authorized national army troops to take charge in any urban area the in which the police lose control of public order. *MORE: *Bogota blaims neo-paramilitaries for violence in anti-government protests* *<http://colombiareports.co/bogota-mayor-paisas-responsible-violence-protestse/> Organizers say they want Wednesdays demonstrations to echo the peaceful tone of their movements, and draw attention away from last Thursdays violence, which they say the government has used to paint the national strikes in a radical light. In an interview with Colombia Reports, Amaury Nunez, a spokesman from Colombias largest student organization (MANE), said the cacerolazo is about reminding Colombians of their right to peaceful protest and legitimate dissent. According to Nunez, the MANE, which is also playing an organizing role in Wednesdays protests, denounces the violence that dirtied last weeks important show of national protest. We cannot comment, he said, on the identities of the people responsible for the violence, or their motives. That is for the authorities to handle. All we can do is continue to emphasize the basic rights of Colombians to peaceful protest, and encourage all of our members and supporters to act within their rights to express their well-founded grievances with the State. Secretary Rivera told Colombia Reports that Wednesdays cacerolazo will begin at 4pm in the Plaza Bolivar in Bogota, and that more information regarding other demonstrations will be available with local CUT representatives and on the organizations website. *Sources* - Interview with Amaury Nunez - Interview with Tarcisio Rivera - http://www.colombia-politics.com/santos-militarizes-colombia/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=santos-militarizes-colombia Santos militarizes Colombia to shut down protests [image: militarizacion]<http://www.colombia-politics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/militarizacion.jpg> Colombia`s president, Juan Manuel Santos, has sent 50,000 troops to patrol the streets in a crackdown on violence amid growing protests and hostility to his handling of countrywide rural strikes now into their third week. Reacting to rioting in Bogota Thursday, in which vandals staged pitched battles against the police in the historic centre and in outlying barrios including Soacha, and Facatativa, Santos took to the airwaves Friday morning to announce the militarization of the capital. 8,500 soldiers now marshal Bogota, while the remaining 41,500 guard other hotspots across the country. Santos claimed the events of Thursday, originally intended as a peaceful march in support of farmers` strikes, had been infiltrated by the FARC through leftist Piedad Cordoba`s Marcha Patriotica movement. In language reminiscent of hardline former president Alvaro Uribe, Santos promised to stand up to the Marcha Patriotica, and prevent it from imposing its will on the country . The presidents pose seemed more appropriate to an attempted *coup de etat* than a day of violent protest. The commander in chief also used the occasion to quit the negotiating table set up with potato farmers in Boyaca; again blaming the FARC for the breakdown in talks. So what of a solution to the rural crisis? Gestures have so far been made; with a freeze in petrol prices for a month and promises of tax exemptions on products like fertilizers vital to the agriculture industry. But with 60% of Colombia`s work force dependent on agro-industry, however, this and previous governments have been inexplicably negligent in their search for the reforms to make farmers` work profitable. As Vice President Angelino Garzon admits, the rural strike hasn`t lasted just 12 days, but instead has lasted 50 years. Since the time of *La Violencia* when Conservatives and Liberals brutally exterminated each other, the rich and fertile Colombian countryside has been more the nation´s battlefield than its larder. Infrastructure, education, and in some cases even the most basic of needs have gone ignored as Bogota has turned a blind eye to those who put food on her table. And the protests, do they continue? On Friday night Colombians repeated the cacerolazo of the previous days, but this time from the safety of their own homes. Yes, farmers too maintain their strikes, but Santos has managed for the time being at least to put a lid on what threatened to explode into a citizens` revolt. But longer term it will not be as easy to ignore the contempt Colombians have for a political class that appears not only out of touch with the nation, but uninterested in it. Few disagree with journalist Maria Jimena Duzman´s claim that Colombia`s political parties have failed in their duty to represent the citizens, instead focusing on their own interests. A country cannot be successfully run this way. President Santos might be able to put a break on protests, but he cannot stop them from emerging again, next month or the month after or the month after that. In Santos` first year students forced his government to drop elements of a controversial education reform. In his second, a social media campaign humiliated his justice reform bill, and now, three years into his mandate he faces civil unrest. Santos and the entire political class must wake up and smell the coffee Colombia`s farmers are bankrupting themselves to make. If Santos wants to be re-elected, he must promise major reform of Colombia`s discredited political class. Do that and he might just win. Fail to do so and he risks being swept off by the turning tide. Sep 2, 2013 Southwest Colombia farmers holding soldiers hostageposted by Adriaan Alsema <http://colombiareports.com/> [image: Southwest Colombia farmers holding soldiers hostage]<http://colombiareports.co/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/mojarras.jpg> (Photo: Panoramio) [image: Share Button] <http://www.hupso.com/share/> <http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=twitter&title=Southwest%20Colombia%20farmers%20'holding%20soldiers%20hostage'&url=http://colombiareports.co/southwest-colombia-farmers-holding-soldiers-hostage/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=facebook&title=Southwest%20Colombia%20farmers%20'holding%20soldiers%20hostage'&url=http://colombiareports.co/southwest-colombia-farmers-holding-soldiers-hostage/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=googleplus&title=Southwest%20Colombia%20farmers%20'holding%20soldiers%20hostage'&url=http://colombiareports.co/southwest-colombia-farmers-holding-soldiers-hostage/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=linkedin&title=Southwest%20Colombia%20farmers%20'holding%20soldiers%20hostage'&url=http://colombiareports.co/southwest-colombia-farmers-holding-soldiers-hostage/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=stumbleupon&title=Southwest%20Colombia%20farmers%20'holding%20soldiers%20hostage'&url=http://colombiareports.co/southwest-colombia-farmers-holding-soldiers-hostage/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=reddit&title=Southwest%20Colombia%20farmers%20'holding%20soldiers%20hostage'&url=http://colombiareports.co/southwest-colombia-farmers-holding-soldiers-hostage/> Protesting farmers from the southwest of Colombia have captured four soldiers and are holding them hostage, authorities said Monday. According to governor Temistocles Ortega, the soldiers were detained over the weekend while waiting at one of the roadblocks put up by angry farmers in Mercaderes, a municipality in the south of the troubled Cauca department. The governor told press a delegation of the United Nations will travel to the municipality to mediate the release of the soldiers. This is the second time soldiers have been taken hostage in Cauca in the last week. Two other soldiers were captured on Tuesday only to be released to representatives of the Ombudsmans Office, the Red Cross and the UN on Saturday. Last year, locals reportedly held 30 soldiers hostage after their army unit killed a neighbor. The situation in Mercaderes has been tense since a countrywide accumulation of strikes kicked off two weeks ago. Following the blocking of roads and the burning of at least one truck by protesting farmers, strong confrontations between the army and police on one end, and the civilian population on the other were reported. in the clashes at least eight farmers and three policemen were injured. Mercaderes, Cauca Sources - En Bloqueo Retienen A Cuatro Militares En Cauca<http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/cali/paro-agrario_13041781-4?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eltiempo%2Fcolombia+(eltiempo.com+--+Colombia)> (El Tiempo) - Campesinos Del Cauca Tienen A Cuatro Militares Retenidos<http://www.elpais.com.co/elpais/judicial/noticias/campesinos-cauca-tienen-cuatro-militares-retenidos> (Colprensa) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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