Over the last week, images of protests, police violence, infographics and hashtags like #SOSColombia have flooded news networks and social media. While reports are rapidly changing, at least 24 people have lost their lives and countless others have been injured. It is not the first time that protests turn deadly in Colombia. In 2019 and in September of last year, Colombians took to the streets to protest cases of police brutality, with seven people being killed during the latter.
Protests began on April 28 when the government announced a tax overhaul that has since been withdrawn. The tax overhaul was meant to fill a fiscal hole created by the coronavirus pandemic. There is widespread agreement that fiscal reform is needed—the country’s economy shrank 7% last year and poverty rose to nearly 43% of the total population. The proposed overhaul, however, would have raised tariffs on everyday goods and services and lowered the threshold at which salaries are taxed, which would have affected Colombians with monthly incomes of $684 or more who are already battered by poverty and unemployment. “They have pushed us to hunger, now they want to take the little we have left,” a protester in Bogotá said.
Though the proposed reform was withdrawn by President Iván Duque and the finance minister announced that he will resign, protesters say that the government took too long to rescind the proposal. This allowed the anger and frustration felt by millions of Colombians for the past year to boil over and evolved into a national outcry against poverty, inequality, and unemployment. Additionally, the heavy-handed state response and instances of police abuse captured on video has sparked further outrage over police brutality in the country.
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) reports they have received 26+ instances of violent homicide, 140+ victims of violent assaults, 761+ arbitrary detentions, 216+ violent interventions, at least 10 victims of sexual assault, and at least 56 allegations of disappearances. The United Nations’ human rights office has expressed alarm over the use of excessive force against protesters, citing particular shock over events in Cali last Monday when police fired on protesters. “What we can say clearly is that we have received reports, and we have witnesses, (of) excessive use of force by security officers, shooting, live ammunition being used, beatings of demonstrators and as well detentions,” Marta Hurtado of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said.
Juan Gonzalez, the National Security Council’s Senior Director for the Western Hemisphere said in a tweet that “the right to peaceful protest is a fundamental freedom. Needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not. And proper observance of use of force standards is NOT negotiable.”