President Duque orders deployment of security forces to unblock roads in Colombia

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Monday, May 17, Colombian President Iván Duque ordered the country’s security forces to deploy their “maximum operational capacity” to unblock the roads closed by protesters during the 20 days of protests against his government, in which more than 40 people have died.

“We have given instructions to all levels of public forces so that in the territories of Colombia, with mayors and governors, they deploy their maximum operational capacity so that within proportionality and strict compliance with human rights and their protection, they allow all Colombians to recover mobility, to recover wellbeing,” Duque said in a statement.

The protests in Colombia, which began last April 28, demand, among other issues, the cessation of police brutality, the withdrawal of the health reform project, which contemplates privatizations; the strengthening of a massive vaccination and basic income of at least one legal monthly minimum wage.