*Update on Colombia* Today marks the 15th consecutive day of the national work stoppage and protests here in Colombia. The government has responded with a combination of concessions and repression. First it withdrew its regressive tax reform proposal and promised not to extend income taxes to currently exempt lower income brackets. Yesterday it promised to eliminate tuition at public universities and technical schools for students from strata 1, 2, and 3 (The are six socioeconomic strata in Colombia.)
Protest leaders have rejected these concessions so far because the government has not demonstrated its sincerity by ending police and paramilitary repression of demonstrators. Cali and Pereira have been centers of violence and repression directed especially against unarmed student and indigenous demonstrators and poor neighborhoods in Cali. Most of the armed violence has been committed by people dressed as civilians but accompanied by uniformed police. Videos of these attacks have flooded the internet. Yesterday, student leader Lucas Villa died from gunshot wounds inflicted by a drive-by shooter while he was demonstrating peacefully in Pereira. Others wounded in the same attack remain hospitalized. Each Wednesday has been the week’s highpoint for major mobilizations, and today is no different. As of this writing at 5:30 in the afternoon, there appear to have been no major attacks or violence anywhere in the country. Since most public transportation has been shut down, many demonstrators are now making their ways home. In Bogotá the mayor has promised that she will try to reopen public transport in the evening. Beyond an end to the repression, protest leaders do not trust the government’s promises because of its failure to make good on the agreement that led to the end of the mass demonstrations in 2019. The government also promised to end tuition at public universities, but evaded its promise by shifting the burden of paying for those universities to the municipal and departmental governments. The country’s major highways remain blocked, although protestors are allowing some traffic to pass through their road blocks. Some of the blockades have in fact been imposed by the police, especially around Cali where the police have prevented a large caravan of indigenous people from leaving the city. The “minga”, the indigenous mobilization, came to Cali to peacefully support the demonstrators against attacks by the police and ultra-right. They decided to leave and return to Cauca to continue supporting the national strike but were unable to leave the city because of the police blockades. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#8529): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/8529 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/82785978/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
