• Colombia Álvaro Uribe: "Duque has lacked authority"

  • Crisis Colombia is experiencing a wave of protests in its worst crisis in decades

There is no solution in sight after a month of strike and vandalism.

The government and the National Unemployment Committee remain in distant positions, although they will

try to reach an agreement tomorrow, Sunday

, in a new meeting.

But there are no signs that they will achieve a rapprochement that ends the month of general strike in the middle of the third peak of the pandemic, with

more than 400 daily deaths from Covid

.

The situation for the real economy is dramatic, with thousands of jobs lost and others at risk because dozens of factories, shops and companies are closed.

In most companies, employees want to go to work but cannot because of the

blockades of streets and highways and the threats from protesters

against their property and lives if they dare to break the strike.

This Saturday, the country partially recovered calm after Iván Duque decided to militarize Cali and Valle del Cauca, after a Friday of exacerbated violence, which got out of control and where there were at least ten deaths.

The opposition leader,

Gustavo Petro

, had called a demonstration throughout Colombia that announced that it would be historic and would break all attendance records, but what the South American nation experienced were some concentrations of a few thousand people who marched peacefully and dozens of violent actions that cost lives and destroyed public and private property.

Perhaps the most gruesome scene, known from the recordings spread by social networks, was

the kicking and punching death of an

investigating

agent

of the Attorney General's Office. He was killed by a mob in retaliation because he had previously shot dead a protester. There is still no clarity on the reasons that led him to use his weapon against unarmed protesters, although the Prosecutor's Office assured that he was not in an act of service.

In other videos, which are broadcast by ordinary citizens, civilians - accompanied by policemen - appeared firing at those who protested.

"Faced with videos that circulate on social networks, which show people using weapons in Cali, and in which some uniformed men appear,

the National Police opened an investigation to determine if there were possible omissions,

" said Major General Jorge Ramírez, Inspector General of the National Police.

Also in different recordings protesters are seen firing their pistols.

In none of the cases can those who shoot be observed

.

The chaos that the city experienced yesterday, which became uncontrollable for the public forces, forced President Duque to travel to Cali at night and announce that he was

sending troops both to the city and to the rest of the towns of Valle del Cauca

that has also suffered a violent onslaught of protesters and infiltrators of criminal gangs. According to the Defense Ministry, FARC dissidents and ELN groups participate in what it has called

"urban terrorism."

In addition to the deaths, which must be investigated, the roadblocks - vital to the Colombian economy - have become the government's biggest headache. The businessmen press for them to be lifted or forcibly removed and the Unemployment Committee and international organizations such as the IACHR claim that they are legitimate.

"The unblocks must be total, absolute.

The prolonged blockades are not legitimate

, even with humanitarian corridors. They affect the right to work, they are leading to bankruptcy of our businessmen," said

Emilio Archila

, the new Government responsible for leading the dialogues with the Committee, after the surprising resignation of the former High Commissioner for Peace,

Miguel Ceballos

, who left office to aspire to the Presidency in 2022.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Colombia

  • National Police

  • FARC

Events A Colombian hit man accused of 100 homicides, including that of his mother-in-law, was arrested in Madrid

ColombiaThe Colombian Government and the Unemployment Committee will try to build bridges this week

Basque Country An ertzaina, among the three arrested for trafficking cocaine diluted in tons of coal from Portugal

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