The protest and marches
began against the tax reform,
and were organized
in every major city
in the whole of the
country from April 28th
by a wide spectrum
of the social movement here in Colombia.
The workers unions,
the Indigenous peoples' movement,
feminists,
LGBTQ plus collectives,
farmers, and much more.
The marches had a big participation
considering we're going through
a third wave of covid cases
caused in big part,
by the mishandling
of the pandemic by the government,
which has left a lot of people
in a dire economic situation.
To face this crisis,
to get past these tax reforms,
supposed to help finance
the social programs implemented by the state,
to help the most vulnerable
the reform in reality
was an attempt to keep
and even increase the tax cuts
and financial benefits
for the wealthiest business owners and bankers.
While putting the burden on the middle and the lower class.
People took to the streets saying our government
is deadlier than the virus.
Since the beginning,
the protests have been met
with repression and violence
that has only gotten worse
and it has angered the people even more.
The police are completely out of control,
especially in working class neighborhoods,
especially in Cali,
but also in the whole country.
Violence of the police includes
illegal detentions,
rape,
and using live rounds on protesters
disappearing them,
Using altered anti riot munitions, an expired teargas,
All this while former president Uribe
is constantly spewing far right wing rhetoric on Twitter.
Right now the situation is dire.
There is supposedly a dialogue
table to be established by
they have begun to censor
us on social media
and even took down
the Internet and electricity in half of Cali,
a city of 2,000,000 inhabitants.
This gives them the liberty
to basically massacre us.
There are rumors of a possible
declaration of a state of emergency
which grants dictator
like powers to the president .
At this point,
increasing international pressure
and solidarity with our situation
might be our only hope
to stop a genocide.