Against the backdrop of a still extremely tense protest situation nationally, a dire economic crisis and a worsening “third wave” of COVID, yesterday the National Strike Committee which has been coordinating nationwide protest announced that a new round of protest would begin tomorrow, May 12. This followed a meeting with President Ivan Duque and government officials, Catholic Church leaders, a UN representative, and trade union officials, among others, intended to “explore” ways to calm down the volatile situation. After three hours of discussion, however, the Committee concluded that “the government showed no empathy” in understanding the reasons which led to the protest in the first place and announced a new nationwide mobilization. The two sides did agree to ask the Catholic Church and the UN to assist in creating the conditions for continued dialogue.
At the heart of the protest are the same issues behind the mobilizations of November, 2019—economic inequality, poverty, unemployment, security, and police repression. But today the situation is far worse, exacerbated by COVID-triggered economic crisis, while the Duque government worries about fiscal deficits, and how to avoid credit-rating downgrades, or anything that might alienate investors. It withdrew the tax reform which sparked the initial protests, but is looking for other pro-IMF austerity measures to impose—at a time when 3.5 million people have joined the ranks of the poor over the past year, with an overall 43% poverty rate nationwide and 60% of the population working in the “informal” economy. In Bogota, the capital, the number living in extreme poverty tripled in just a year, Relief Web reported May 6. The capital of Bogota is struggling to deal with surging COVID cases, and the hospital system borders on collapse, but this hasn’t prevented citizens from taking to the streets to protest, despite public health restrictions. As one unnamed citizen put it, “If COVID doesn’t kill us, hunger will,” El Espectador reported May 10.
