Colombia’s Duque relies on military to confront tax reform protests

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Colombian President Iván Duque, said this Saturday that he would rely on the Armed Forces to control the riots in several cities of the country during the protests that have as main focus the discontent for the tax reform presented by his government.

The head of state expressed this in a statement at the Casa de Nariño. He explained that  “military assistance” will be maintained until “the facts of serious alteration of public order cease” and that it will be coordinated with mayors and governors.

“The military assistance will remain in force in urban centers where there is a high risk to the integrity of citizens and where it is required to employ the full capacity of the State to protect the population, it is enshrined in the Constitution and the law, and it will be maintained,” said Duque.

The Colombian ruler’s statement came shortly after new episodes of violence and disorder were registered in Bogotá, Cali, and other Colombian cities on the fourth day of protests against the government’s tax reform, which coincided with May Day, a workers’ celebration that passed peacefully in the early hours of the day.

In his statement, Duque assured that today demonstrations were seen in different parts of the country that show that people can mobilize and express themselves freely.

However, he warned that he would not allow “de facto ways, the destruction of public and private property or the message of hate to have a place in our country”.

“My obligation as president of the republic is to guarantee the right to peaceful protest, but above all to guarantee the security of our fellow citizens,” the president said.

However, the president did not mention the tax reform that is at the origin of the protests and that from different sectors ask him to withdraw from Congress has no chance of being approved.

DISTURBANCES IN THE COUNTRY

Yesteray’s disturbances in Bogotá began in the late afternoon in the central Plaza de Bolivar. They spread to other parts of the city, even reaching the northern area. A crowd gathered in front of the condominium where the president has his private residence to express their dissatisfaction with the government.

In the same northern area of Bogotá, there was looting at the Country neighborhood store of the supermarket chain Exito, and hooded people broke windows of banks and stores, which forced the intervention of the Police Mobile Anti-Riot Squadron (Esmad), which used gas and a tank to disperse the people.

The most massive demonstrations of the day retook place in Cali, capital of the department of Valle del Cauca and third-largest city in the country, where tens of thousands of people gathered in the sector known as Loma de la Cruz and in another called Puerto Rellena, which as a result of the protests is now called Puerto Resistencia (Resistance Port).

In that city also arrived today four “chivas” (typical passenger buses in the mountain areas of Colombia) carrying dozens of indigenous people from the neighboring department of Cauca to reinforce the protests.

There was also disorder in Pasto, capital of the department of Nariño, bordering Ecuador, where a mob tore down the statue of Antonio Nariño (1765-1823), the precursor of Colombia’s Independence.

According to the Ombudsman, Carlos Camargo, three people died in Cali in the last few days in situations linked to the protests, and three other deaths are being verified.

This week a death was also reported in Neiva, capital of the department of Huila, while in Soacha, a town close to Bogotá, police captain Jesús Alberto Solano was stabbed to death.

For the full picture, see our Brazil Tax Reform: Complete Guide.