Colombia: despite violent repression and withdrawal of reform, social movement continues
Audio 01:17
Colombia, on May 3, 2021, in Bogota and several cities road blockades and protests against government policy continue despite the withdrawal of tax reform by President Ivan Duque.
AP - Fernando Vergara
Text by: RFI Follow
6 mins
Colombian President Ivan Duque ended up withdrawing his tax reform and his finance minister resigned but the protests did not give way.
In five days, they left around 20 dead and more than 800 injured.
The demonstrators in particular block the entrances to the capital, Bogota.
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We are in Rosales, about twenty kilometers west of the capital.
Burning tires, an endless line of stopped trucks and discontented young people… Not many of them block the road - maybe fifty - but they know they are in a strong position, the mobilization affects the whole country .
Paola, saleswoman, explains to our correspondent,
Marie-Eve Detoeuf,
why she is there: “
We are in the middle of a pandemic, we are in crisis, and on top of that the government wants to put VAT on all food.
The country has a very big debt and they want to make us pay it, that is not fair!
"
Doesn't Paola know that
Ivan Duque gave in
?
“
He said he was withdrawing the reform but that they were going to manufacture another one.
Anyway, he put on a small bandage.
But we no longer believe in his lies!
We will continue to fight until Duque leaves or until he does something good for this country
”.
Explosion of poverty
Colombia is the most affected on the continent by the Covid-19 pandemic after Brazil, and poverty has exploded there over the past year as recalled by Yann Basset, professor of political science at the University of Rosario in Bogota interviewed. by
Véronique Gaymard
from the international service.
“
Well beyond the reform proposed by the government, which served as a detonator, what the demonstrations show is that the situation is extremely serious. The Colombian Institute of Statistics recently released statistics on poverty: they show that last year poverty fell from 37% to 45% of the population in one year. That is to say that we have wasted fifteen years in the field of social policy in Colombia - it is a real disaster - and according to the survey many Colombians can no longer afford to eat three meals a day.
"
A tense economic and social context to which is added, according to Yann Basset, the lack of political sense of the government.
“
And there is added to that, a government which, in political matters, is really incompetent, to put it mildly.
It is a government which is made up of people who are rather technical, but who do not have the capacities of negotiation, of communication… Who do not have the necessary political experience and who have proposed this reform with very good intentions. , but without really socializing it in advance and therefore they caused this kind of social explosion which surprised everyone
”.
Discontent that goes beyond tax reform
For the demonstrators in Rosales, strong determination. For student John, Ivan Duque's handling of the crisis only made matters worse. “
The president sent his armed forces who started shooting at the people. We are killing people here in Colombia. And if we don't do anything, well things will continue like this. We started peacefully but it is not possible, the armed forces do not want
”
.
John also intends to remain mobilized and it is difficult to predict how the situation may develop, according to Yann Basset. “
The situation is a bit uncertain, some organizations have announced that they will continue to demonstrate. With these two measures [the withdrawal of the reform and the resignation of the minister concerned Editor's note], we hope that the social climate will stabilize a little, but for the moment, it is still quite uncertain. Because, on the one hand, the discontent that has manifested itself is quite general and goes well beyond the reform. And in addition, because it manifested itself in a fairly decentralized way, including in many small towns, and there is no real organization that can be the interlocutor of the government to really represent the demonstrators.
".
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To read also
: in Colombia, the discontent of the demonstrators against the tax reform intensifies
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