“Domino theory worked”: why Colombians protest against their president

Curfew imposed in the capital of Colombia Bogotá. He will operate in three districts of the capital - Bosa, Kennedy and Ciudad Bolivar, said on his Twitter President Ivan Duke. All three districts are notable for the fact that low-income people live in them and there are barrios - the notorious slums of Bogotá.

The reason for the introduction of the curfew was the unrest in the country, which from Thursday grew into riots.

On November 21, according to Reuters, 250,000 people took part in anti-government actions. Colombian Interior Minister Nancy Gutierrez announced a different figure - 207 thousand people.

The protests in Bogota grew into clashes between police and protesters. However, Colombian Vice President Marta Lucia Ramirez wrote on her Twitter that most of the demonstrators were peaceful, not counting a few hooligans, and called for a dialogue with protesters.

Despeje de Plaza de Bolívar por parte de los manifestantes demuestra que la mayoría eran jóvenes en actitud pacífica. Solo los pocos vándalos se quedaron destruyendo. Tenemos una juventud que en su mayoría tiene una actitud pacífica y seguiremos escuchándolos constructivamente.

Demonstrations took place in other cities of Colombia, in particular in Cali and Medellin.

On November 23, President Duque also called on the protesters for a dialogue in his televised address.

“I invite leaders from various social and political sectors to make national efforts in the future to overcome inequality, irresponsibility and bridge the gaps that divide our country,” he said.

Duque emphasized that all Colombians are working on the task of building the future. He expressed confidence that the dialogue with the protesters would allow "all together to turn over these pages of hatred, violence and inequality."

According to media reports, on the night of November 22-23, three people were killed in a bombed truck near a police station in Santander de Quilichao, Cauca. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Threat of renewed civil war

It is worth noting that the Department of Cauca was the scene of fierce clashes during the government’s 50-year civil war with left-wing and left-wing radical groups. Formally, it ended on September 1, 2017, when the largest armed group, the “Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia” (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, abbreviated FARC) announced the self-dissolution. It was transformed into a legal political party, and its leader Rodrigo Londogno Echeverri (Timoleon Jimenez, Tymoshenko) announced his intention to run for president in 2018. However, in the future, having undergone heart surgery, he refused his plans to take the presidency.

True, the second largest armed group, the left-radical National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN), did not lay down their arms.

In addition, in August 2019, one of the leaders of the FARC, Ivan Marquez, published an appeal in which he said that part of the supporters of his group resumed the armed struggle.

According to Vladimir Travkin, editor-in-chief of Latin America magazine, fears that unrest in Colombia will develop into a full-scale civil war are justified.

“Protests are taking place in a country where a large number of weapons have accumulated in the hands of the population. The drug mafia, with which the right-wing groups, and government structures, and left-wing partisans, to one degree or another, has not gone anywhere. In these conditions, it is difficult to exclude bloodshed, but, of course, I want it to not come to that, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

At the same time, Travkin emphasized that the protests have no (at least direct) connection with the active participants in the civil war - the left-wing radical groups.

“The reason for the protests is the government’s mistakes in the socio-economic sphere,” he said, adding that we are talking about the right-liberal reforms that Duque tried to carry out.

MGIMO professor Vladimir Sudarev, in a RT commentary, identified several major groups that participate in protests in Colombia.

“First of all, this is the student body, which has long demanded the expansion of budget funding not of private, but of state universities. Duque, on the contrary, made a bet on the development of private higher education. Students in Colombia are active, they are ready to take to the streets at the first signal, ”says the expert.

The second important participant in the protests, he said, is trade unions.

“Colombia has a strong union movement. Duke restored him against himself by introducing a strange system of employment, which led to a reduction in salaries and depriving entire categories of citizens of the opportunity to receive a pension, ”Sudarev said.

In addition, local Indians are actively involved in the protests. No wonder one of the symbols of protests was the symbol of the Indian population - the rainbow flag of Viphala.

“The Indian movement in Latin America is on the rise, despite what happened in Bolivia. This political force in Colombia is quite serious. The demands of the Indians are traditional: autonomy and legalization of the rights to their land plots in order to prevent the seizure of land by the landowners, ”Sudarev believes.

Finally, in his opinion, the general situation in the country plays its role. Duque could not cope with the drug mafia, the level of crime and violence was not reduced. So, despite the president’s promise to solve the problem of barrios, in the capital of Colombia in recent years only one slum area has been eliminated - the notorious Bronx. Other similar areas still exist.

South America waking up

However, experts believe that the unrest in Colombia should be included in a wider context. Vladimir Sudarev emphasizes that recent events in South America refute the common myth that the left turn in the region is replaced by the right.

• The use of tear gas against protesters in Bogota
• AFP
• © Raul Arboleda

Duque is a right-wing liberal, experts say, and Colombia is a traditional US ally. Duque himself has extremely tense relations with the left-wing president of neighboring Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro. The two countries are teetering on the brink of military conflict. In September, Duque called for an “end to the rule” of Maduro, the expert recalled.

According to Sudarev, another process is underway in South America - the local society is becoming tired of the authorities' inability to solve pressing problems.

“We can say that the domino theory worked in the region. Protests in one country spill over into protests in another country. For example, before the unrest in Colombia, there were very similar unrest in Chile. In Colombia, such mass protests were not 42 years old, in Chile - 30 years. At the same time, the demands of Colombian and Chilean protesters are the same, ”the expert emphasizes.

He draws attention to the fact that the reaction of the Chilean and Colombian authorities to the riots was about the same. Like the Chilean leader Sebastian Pignera, Duque offers negotiations, although it is not clear who exactly to lead them with: the protests are largely spontaneous, they involve diverse forces, so they do not have clear leaders.

Experts call the positive factor in the current situation that the events in Colombia are likely to do without US intervention.

“Of course, Ivan Duque is one of the few strategic partners of Donald Trump. But I do not think that in this case there will be some kind of interference from the USA. Trump is busy with his personal problems, he has an election campaign now, and therefore he is very cautious about the idea of ​​helping even the most friendly authorities, ”Vladimir Sudarev believes.