(May 05, 2021) The armed conflict that Colombia has experienced for more than fifty years has deepened poverty and massive displacement in its territories. This has also led to the Colombian people waging great struggles for social demands, both peasant and students. These struggles have unfortunately been violated and violated, so much so that it is one of the countries with the highest number of murders of leaders and social leaders, as well as human rights defenders. All this, despite the great efforts of social movements to achieve peace and while seeking the legitimacy of its historical demands.
Colombia, under the current administration, is the site of constant political violence, delaying and hindering the small advances made a few years ago with the peace agreement, says CLOC in a strongly worded statement.
“The Political Coordination of South America of the CLOC LVC, sympathize and reject the latest acts of state violence that are currently taking place in the country. While the trigger for people’s protest is the Tax Reform, resentment among public has been brewing since 2019. Despite the pandemic, people are out demonstrating for what has historically been denied to them; Among the demands of the national strike are the basic income, mass vaccination, the defense of national, artisanal and peasant production, the withdrawal of reforms such as health and decrees that further promote job insecurity in the country and more. However, what the social movement has encountered has been pettiness and state violence”. CLOC cites in its statement.
Read the full statement from CLOC (in Spanish) here.
The Movement of Rural Landless Workers in Brazil, MST, notes in its statement that there are already 21 murdered, 851 cases of police violence, 655 arbitrary arrests, disappearance of leaders and more than 10 victims of sexual violence against protesters.
National Association of Peasants (ANAP) from Cuba has also issued a statement calling on peasant and indigenous organisations and field workers from all over the world and the international community to show solidarity with the Colombian people, to unite in favor of life and peace and for the effective implementation of the Peace Accords, for the immediate cessation of the murders, arbitrary arrests and all kinds of violence against the protesters in the National Strike.
