In Colombia, which has been shaken by massive protests against the government for weeks, the situation is getting worse.

In the third largest city in the country, Cali, three people were killed in clashes on Friday, the city's mayor, Jorge Iván Ospina, announced.

After a meeting with security officials, President Iván Duque announced that soldiers would be sent to Cali.

The Foreign Office issued a conditional travel warning.

According to the authorities, 49 people have been killed, including two police officers, since the protests began a month ago.

The human rights organization Human Rights Watch speaks of more than 60 dead.

Human rights activists accuse the Colombian security forces of disproportionate violence against the demonstrators.

More than 120 people have been missing since the protests began, with around 2,000 injured.

The three deaths in Cali occurred in clashes between "blockers" and people who wanted to break through these blockades, Ospina said.

He spoke of a "situation of death and pain".

"We must not succumb to the temptation of violence and death," he appealed.

Video footage showed a man lying in a pool of blood and another man with a gun who was attacked by a group of people.

"Maximum use" of the army

President Duque announced the dispatch of a large military force to Cali.

"Tonight begins the maximum deployment of military support for the National Police in Cali," he said.

The Foreign Office in Berlin issued a conditional travel warning for Colombia in view of the protests and the deployment of military personnel to the province of Valle del Cauca, the capital of which is Cali.

The nationwide protests were "partly associated with massively violent riots," said the Foreign Office on Saturday.

Further escalations cannot be ruled out, and an end to the unrest is not yet in sight.

In Colombia, thousands of people have been taking to the streets for weeks out of anger about the government's health, safety and education policies.

The protests were triggered by plans for tax reform, which have since been withdrawn.

The protests are now directed against the government in general.

While the nationwide protests are mostly peaceful during the day, they often turn into violence in the evening.

The major cities in the country are particularly affected.

The demonstrators are demanding better working conditions, reform of the pension system, better protection of human rights defenders and the full implementation of the peace agreement with the rebel group Farc.

The protests are the bloodiest since the peace agreement with the FARc in 2016.

Especially young people protest

There had already been major protests against Duque, especially among young people, in 2019.

Protests came to a standstill during the corona pandemic.

However, the economic situation of many Colombians has worsened during the pandemic: 42.5 percent of the population live below the poverty line.

Political scientist Sandra Borda says that “at least a decade has been lost in the fight against poverty”.

“There is an active part of society that has long been excluded from politics, the world of work and the education system and that is now fed up with it.” The people who are now on the streets represent this part of the population.

The violence during the protests was also the subject of a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Colombian Vice President Marta Lucía Ramírez in Washington on Friday. According to US State Department spokesman Ned Price, Blinken expressed “concern” and “condolences” for the deaths during the protests at the meeting. He also emphasized the "indisputable right of citizens to peaceful protest".