It is dusk in Cali and the reddened clouds stain the blue sky on Friday, May 7. Suddenly, a beautiful postcard sneaks into everyday conversations via cell phone. It seems that this image had a healing effect, so it was for a moment, in the retina of Cali, overwhelmed by the strongest of storms.
The photo goes viral, there are those who get excited and dare to say that perhaps it is the omen that better days will come. May the life we had before April 28 may return to focus again on taking care only of the pandemic.
But the effect soon wears off and we come back to reality; Another hard night, very hard in the La Luna sector, the overflights in Siloé, attacks in Calipso, an attack in Paso del Comercio and the videos that are spread. Reports of excesses by the Public Force. The Public Force replying that they repel the attacks. Human Rights organizations denouncing homicides. Families praying that theirs return home. Life, the great loser of this long journey, crying out to be respected.
Let’s not fool ourselves, Cali has never been a European city. To ignore that there are decades of harsh and transformed violence is to want to cover the sun with a finger. Nor are we going to ignore that it is the center of operation for sophisticated and drug-trafficking criminal organizations, to which is added the lack of opportunities as an unjustified breeding ground for crime.
A Molotov cocktail that explains what has happened in the last 12 days: clinics clamoring for oxygen to pass through; the violated medical missions; extortions in urban tolls that demand up to 50 thousand pesos to allow the passage. Devastated sectors and people crying in front of what happened. Looted supermarkets, vandalized gas stations. The negotiation for the humanitarian corridor to allow food and gasoline to pass. The owner of the motorcycle sale of La Luna, defeated by losing everything. The Cartagüeño, returning to his land because his warehouse in the center was set on fire. Schools, only virtual; the unemployed university students, the citizens, terrified.
We are not going to ignore the just claims against a tax reform that fueled the social explosion, and that when it fell did not end the protest, although even Petro recommended to deactivate it. Not wanting to label the entire protester as a guerrilla, when we have seen rivers of people, marching peacefully and with a haughty youth and protagonist in it, who is not even afraid of the covid.
Less insulting the peaceful marches, like those of yesterday, of inhabitants of the West, the Garden City and other sectors clamoring for the blockades to end, to allow them to go to work and to return to tranquility. How much it costs us to understand that hate speech alienates us and prevents us from assembling this puzzle of microcities that is Cali.
Without a doubt, the most devastating thing has been to see the failure of the national and local government in not being able to guarantee order. The Defense Ministry came, then the Interior Ministry, General Zapateiro, Mayor Ospina became Jorge Iván and little changed here. They have not even been able to with the extortion tolls. Not to clarify why so many shots. Amazing.
On the reddened Friday evening, which alleviated so much uneasiness for a moment, prayers were shared in the hope that at least it would have an effect. A plea to which I would add the urgency to unite, even if we think differently, to clean up the rubble and build our city; to demand the truth of what happened and for our leaders to find the north, with us by their side. Only by remembering what has made us great in the face of difficulty is it possible that we will find the way for the storm to finally cease in our Cali of the soul.
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