{"id":5690,"date":"2021-07-28T22:38:28","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T22:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5690"},"modified":"2021-07-28T22:38:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T22:38:28","slug":"colombias-protests-are-a-product-of-its-post-peace-deal-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5690","title":{"rendered":"Colombia\u2019s protests are a product of its post-peace-deal reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“Colombia is the second most unequal country<\/a> in an already unequal Latin America region<\/a>. Even as its economy has grown in recent decades<\/a>, the poorest slice of the population is not seeing those benefits, and many lower- and middle-income earners struggle to pay for basic services.”
…
“unrest that has convulsed Colombia for more than a month<\/a>. A tax reform bill<\/a> proposed by right-wing President Ivan Duque<\/a> sparked protests in late April, with thousands responding to a call from national labor unions to push against the measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government defended<\/a> the proposed tax increase as a much-needed measure to repair the economy after fallout from the coronavirus. Those who opposed the legislation saw it as putting another burden on middle-class and poorer families<\/a> who are already in a precarious position, also because of the coronavirus.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Columbia recently emerged from decades of internal armed conflict, the culmination of an imperfect and still not fully realized peace process<\/a>. But this helped excise the civil war as the dominant political issue.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Colombian National Police is very much linked to the military; though a distinctive branch, it falls under the oversight of the Ministry of Defense<\/a>. The force itself was shaped by the conflict in Colombia, with officers often fighting \u201con the front lines, wielding tanks and helicopters as they battled guerrilla fighters and destroyed drug labs,\u201d according to the New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics have said the country\u2019s national police needs to reform<\/a>, moving from a focus on training for battle to one of public safety.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“\u201cThey are treating the protesters as they used to treat the guerrillas, as subversives, because that\u2019s the type of public force that is the police,\u201d Restrepo said. \u201cThe military and security forces that we have, that was never reformed.\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The government has also alleged that some of the violence and chaos is the work of guerrillas, including the vestiges of the FARC, as well as drug traffickers who have infiltrated the protests. At the end of May, when protests had stretched on for a full month, Duque deployed the military to Cali, saying the increased capacity would help in the areas that have seen \u201cacts of vandalism, violence and low-intensity urban terrorism<\/a>.\u201d Officials have also said hundreds of police officers have been injured, including by armed civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restrepo said the government is trying to bring the FARC guerrillas and Colombia\u2019s conflict back to the center of the agenda \u201cto justify the militarization of the police and the techniques that they\u2019re using, the violence [and] brutality that they\u2019re using.\u201d In other words, when it works politically, go back to the us-versus-them paradigm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has further enraged protesters who see their legitimate grievances being ignored and their anger recast.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Experts told me it would be a mistake to say all protesters, or even all blockades in cities like Cali, are associated with criminal elements. \u201cThat being said, you\u2019re having this context of social protests embedded in a city, in a country where, of course, there are some powerful criminal organizations and guerrilla groups,\u201d the Universidad Icesi\u2019s Albarrac\u00edn said. At least some of those groups will take advantage of the disorder \u2014 and the front lines are already so chaotic and disorganized, it\u2019s hard to know who\u2019s who.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Protests are happening across Colombia, in cities including\u00a0Cali<\/a>,\u00a0Bogot\u00e1<\/a>, and\u00a0Medellin<\/a>. But this is not a fully unified movement. Up close, the protests all look very different, with diverse and often localized grievances \u2014 and not all of the demands are aligned.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/22518904\/colombia-protests-cali-duque-police-brutality<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Colombia is the second most unequal country in an already unequal Latin America region. Even as its economy has grown in recent decades, the poorest slice of the population is not seeing those benefits, and many lower- and middle-income earners struggle to pay for basic services.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“unrest that has convulsed Colombia for more than a month. A tax reform bill proposed by right-wing President Ivan Duque sparked protests in late April, with thousands responding to a call from national labor unions to push against the measure.
\nThe government defended the proposed tax increase as a much-needed measure to repair the economy after fallout from the coronavirus. Those who opposed the legislation saw it as putting another burden on middle-class and poorer families who are already in a precarious position, also because of the coronavirus.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Columbia recently emerged from decades of internal armed conflict, the culmination of an imperfect and still not fully realized peace process. But this helped excise the civil war as the dominant political issue.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“The Colombian National Police is very much linked to the military; though a distinctive branch, it falls under the oversight of the Ministry of Defense. The force itself was shaped by the conflict in Colombia, with officers often fighting \u201con the front lines, wielding tanks and helicopters as they battled guerrilla fighters and destroyed drug labs,\u201d according to the New York Times.<\/p>\n

Critics have said the country\u2019s national police needs to reform, moving from a focus on training for battle to one of public safety.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“\u201cThey are treating the protesters as they used to treat the guerrillas, as subversives, because that\u2019s the type of public force that is the police,\u201d Restrepo said. \u201cThe military and security forces that we have, that was never reformed.\u201d”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“The government has also alleged that some of the violence and chaos is the work of guerrillas, including the vestiges of the FARC, as well as drug traffickers who have infiltrated the protests. At the end of May, when protests had stretched on for a full month, Duque deployed the military to Cali, saying the increased capacity would help in the areas that have seen \u201cacts of vandalism, violence and low-intensity urban terrorism.\u201d Officials have also said hundreds of police officers have been injured, including by armed civilians.<\/p>\n

Restrepo said the government is trying to bring the FARC guerrillas and Colombia\u2019s conflict back to the center of the agenda \u201cto justify the militarization of the police and the techniques that they\u2019re using, the violence [and] brutality that they\u2019re using.\u201d In other words, when it works politically, go back to the us-versus-them paradigm.<\/p>\n

This has further enraged protesters who see their legitimate grievances being ignored and their anger recast.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Experts told me it would be a mistake to say all protesters, or even all blockades in cities like Cali, are associated with criminal elements. \u201cThat being said, you\u2019re having this context of social protests embedded in a city, in a country where, of course, there are some powerful criminal organizations and guerrilla groups,\u201d the Universidad Icesi\u2019s Albarrac\u00edn said. At least some of those groups will take advantage of the disorder \u2014 and the front lines are already so chaotic and disorganized, it\u2019s hard to know who\u2019s who.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Protests are happening across Colombia, in cities including Cali, Bogot\u00e1, and Medellin. But this is not a fully unified movement. Up close, the protests all look very different, with diverse and often localized grievances \u2014 and not all of the demands are aligned.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1259,217,165,363],"class_list":["post-5690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-colombia","tag-economics","tag-economy","tag-inequality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5691,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5690\/revisions\/5691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}