Instead, We Became Millions : Inside Colombia s Ongoing General Strike libcom.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from libcom.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - Police violence in the Americas is a seemingly insurmountable disease that has penetrated the entire region despite constant calls for control and respect for human rights. Countries such as the United States, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, and Chile have been the scene of episodes of extreme use of force, leaving dozens of victims in their wake.
COLOMBIA UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT
In recent years, protests in Colombia have included the names of Dilan Cruz, Javier Ordóñez, and, in recent days, Marcelo Agredo and Santiago Murillo. All of them died in demonstrations that were supposed to be peaceful . . .
Yet another wave of unrest is sweeping Colombia. The latest protests began on April 28 in response to a tax reform proposal from President Iván Duque. The announcement sparked a wave of nationwide protests, leaving at least 19 people dead and hundreds more injured. In reaction to the massive public outburst, President Duque announced on 2 May that the tax reform was no longer on the table. A day later, he announced that he had accepted the resignation of finance minister Alberto Carrasquilla.
President Duque’s backtracking appears to have done little to quell the protests, which have been exacerbated by the violent police response. The topic of police violence has become a leading cause of public concern in Colombia, with this latest wave capturing headlines in El Tiempo, the country’s leading newspaper.
Originally published in Spanish by La Liga Contra el Silencio.
“Help! Shooting in Siloé. It’s 9:25. They are shooting us,” says a trembling man filming a group as they run away. “They are killing us,” someone says amid screams and confusion in another video showing people sprawled on the floor, wounded and bleeding.
These accounts, shared on social media and essential in broadcasting the national strike, depict what happened on the night of May 3 in a popular neighborhood known as Siloé, in the Comuna 20 in west Cali. They reflect the hours of terror and the police’s excessive use of force against demonstrators. The human toll: 19 people wounded, mostly by bullets, and three young people killed: Kevin Antoni Agudelo Jiménez, Harold Antoni Rodríguez Mellizo, and José Emilson Ambuila.