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Since April 28, Colombia has experienced massive mobilizations by workers and youth, against the tax reform of the Duque government. Despite the withdrawal of the tax reform at the origin of the first demonstrations by the government and the resignation of the Minister of Finance who was the instigator, the Colombian people continue to mobilize, in the face of contempt for the Colombian government but more generally around ‘a general fed-up caused by decades of social attacks. Called by the National Strike Committee and by various organizations, a new day of large-scale national mobilization once again crossed the whole country, Wednesday, May 26. This day was marked once again by multiple police violence and particularly brutal repression, especially in the city of Tuluá. Violence that claimed the life of a young man and left dozens of wounded.
?ﾟﾒﾥ⚡#Colombia #Colombia
Colombian voltigeurs in their works ⚡⚡⚡#SOSColombia#SOSColombiaDDHH#ColombiaEnDictadura— Pabloneruda54 (Secours) (@Pabloneruda54S) May 28, 2021
Already, Tuesday evening, a violent repression had descended on one of the road blocks set up by the demonstrators in the city of Tulùa. A repression for which the responsibility is directly that of President Iván Duque who for a week had weighed on the demonstrators the threat of an ultimatum to dislodge the road blockages. This Tuesday, Duque went to the port of Bonaventura in the company of the Minister of the Interior and a commission of government delegates and affirmed there “In Colombia there is no right to block the roads, therefore we will see a great commitment of the public force if necessary for the good of southwestern Colombia and our community”. The threats are explained above all by the fact that the mobilization continues and now paralyzes 50% of the port economy around numerous blockades put in place by the demonstrators.
In Tuluá, the burning of the courthouse and a violent repression
The repression and attacks on Tuesday in Tuluá resulted in the burning of the courthouse. Despite the accusations of Duque and the former far-right president Álvaro Uribe who point the finger at the demonstrators, many Internet users denounce on social networks the responsibility of the paramilitaries and the complicity of the police in the fire. In a tweet, Justice Minister Wilson Ruiz Orejuela condemns and accuses protesters of “Vandalism and terrorist acts”, showing the government’s desire to criminalize the social movement. This government propaganda is accompanied by a desire to smash the movement with terror. Thus since the beginning of the movement more than 44 people have been killed and there are more than 2000 wounded and this while 120 people are still missing according to the NGO Temblores.
Also, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued a stern statement on Tuesday condemning the serious human rights violations during the protests. Contrary to the rhetoric that the Duque government wishes to impose “the Commission emphasizes that in at least 1,038 demonstrations, there were cases of death, disappearance, injuries and sexual assault resulting from a disproportionate and illegitimate use of strength. These events took place in cities such as Bogota, Cali, Pereira, Popayán and Yumbo in particular, and had a particular impact among indigenous peoples, women and people of African descent. “
#Colombia ? ﾟ ﾇ ﾴ Most of the evidence and information that we receive points to the actions of armed civilians, paramilitaries (outside the organization of the #ParoNacional) as authors of the fire in the Palace of Justice of Tuluá, in Valle del Cauca. #FalseFlag #FalsePositive pic.twitter.com/ccHeNvzn30
– International Foundation for Human Rights (@Declaracion) May 26, 2021
These are the young people who were found dead today in Tuluá, Valle. They are: Jesús David Vallejo Ruiz de (20), Pablo Esteban Riega Vinasco (16), Óscar Iván Restrepo Acosta (19) and a 4th victim still unidentified
THEY ARE MURDERING OUR YOUTH pic.twitter.com/laHScVh2S0
– Physicist EnParo (@FisicoImpuro) May 26, 2021
The day of the demonstration was notably marked by the murder of a law student by the police. the UN in a statement called for “Clarification on violent death” of the young student: “We are very worried about Tuluá. We are in contact with the authorities and civil society. We recall that human rights and dialogue are the way to overcome this situation ” and is therefore satisfied with “Recall human rights” and to call for dialogue, while the Duque government, its police and its army have their hands stained with blood.
We express great concern X Tuluá. In facts X clarify there is a violent death, an unknown number of wounded and the courthouse burned. We are in contact with authorities and civil society. We remember that #ddhh and dialogue are the way to overcome this situation
– UN Human Rights Colombia (@ONUHumanRights) May 26, 2021
For a week the government had been threatening protesters to forcefully unblock blocked roads, it put its threat to execution on Wednesday, in blood and violence. At the same time, the union leaderships, grouped together in the National Strike Committee, as well as the opposition political organizations, gather around a table with Duque, while his hands are soiled with the blood of thousands of people, murdered or injured. They therefore endorse his policy and only hope to weaken the government for the presidential elections of 2022 or at least do not propose a battle plan up to the task for the millions of young people and workers who are mobilizing in the Colombian streets. . Especially the coalition of opposition to the current Colombian government, led by Gustavo Petro, also works for this policy of dialogue. As Claudia Cinnatti reports, in an article translated by Permanent Revolution: “This policy was explicitly formulated by Petro during a meeting with the Strike Committee; by telling them that they should have “declared victory” after the withdrawal of the reform by Duque, and taking note of the distance between the union leadership and the precarious young people and neighborhoods who continue to fight and do not want to return home , advising them to set one or two immediate goals and sit down to dialogue with the government. They are thus rendering an invaluable service to the ruling class, acting to save the weakened Duque government, to prevent its revolutionary fall and to consolidate the deviation of the process towards next year’s elections. The process always has an announced end. ”
In view of the current situation, the emergence of the working class at the head of the alliance with all the exploited is fundamental in order to be able to guarantee a progressive solution to the general crisis in Colombia and the revolutionary overthrow of Duque and all the diet. By this around the struggle for the general strike, for the self-organization of the working class and against the logic of dialogue with the Duque government opens the way for workers and youth to equip themselves with a powerful organization. that is their own. A revolutionary party of the workers and the exploited which fights tooth and nail to find a definitive solution to the most pressing problems to which capitalism condemns them and which poses as a way out the need for a government of the workers and the exploited.
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