{"id":6041,"date":"2019-12-08T12:59:02","date_gmt":"2019-12-08T12:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=6041"},"modified":"2019-12-08T12:59:02","modified_gmt":"2019-12-08T12:59:02","slug":"to-advance-we-must-stop-two-weeks-of-protests-in-bogota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2019\/12\/08\/to-advance-we-must-stop-two-weeks-of-protests-in-bogota\/","title":{"rendered":"To Advance We Must Stop: Two Weeks of Protests in Bogot\u00e1"},"content":{"rendered":"

A national strike was called in Colombia for Thursday, the 21st<\/sup> of November. In Bogot\u00e1, it would be the beginning of two weeks of protests, parties, and panics.<\/p>\n

Iv\u00e1n Duque, Colombia\u2019s\u00a0 right-wing president, was elected in 2018. Since then he has tried to implement the typical Latin American neo-liberal programme: pension privatisation; privatisation of government agencies; cuts to education budgets; cuts to corporation tax; cuts to the minimum wage for young people; the violent suppression of the left; the violation of peace treaties; the murder of social leaders. The strikes are a response to that programme.<\/p>\n

Bouncing in the spotlight of the Andean sun<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The marches began on Thursday morning. Thousands walked along the main routes into the centre of the city. Approaching from a few streets over, it sounded like the noise from a football stadium. There was music and whistles and horns. Crowds bounced in the spotlight of the Andean sun. Police helicopters hovered over the tree-topped mountains which enclose the city. Theatre groups twirled white flags like batons. Trapeze artists hung red ribbons from bridges and performed for the crowds passing underneath. The multi-coloured indigenous flag \u2013 the Wiphala \u2013 sparkled\u00a0 in the sunshine. The flags of over fifty trade unions waved above the walking crowds. Topless protestors posed for photographs. People in traditional indigenous clothes played music and danced in a circle. Fireworks went off.<\/p>\n

One group of marchers carried a naked, blood-covered doll to represent the eight children who had been killed in August by the Colombian military.[i]<\/a><\/p>\n

There were pictures of pigs everywhere. The president, whenever he appears on television, has a bewildered look that is made worse by the porcine upturn of his nose. There were pig masks, pig posters, pig flags, people dressed as pigs, the president\u2019s face on the body of a pig, a puppet of a pig being controlled by \u00c1lvaro Uribe.<\/p>\n

\"\"
President Donald J. Trump shakes hands with the President of the Republic of Colombia Ivan Duque Marquez prior to participating in a bilateral meeting Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr. Duque is widely considered to be a proxy for Mr. Uribe, the influential former president. The name Uribe alone evokes, for some Colombians, images of death squads, narco<\/em> money, pro-business corruption, and the genocide of poor and indigenous people. For others, Uribe means safety, progress, prosperity, and victory over left-wing terrorists.<\/p>\n

In a surprise move, students from the National University of Colombia turned west to block the airport. The were stopped along the route by ESMAD, Colombia\u2019s controversial riot police unit.[ii]<\/a> The riot police fired teargas and stun grenades. The students held their hands up and chanted Sin violencia<\/em>, both a statement of intent and an accusation directed at the riot police\u2019s reputation for brutality.<\/p>\n

The rest of the marches continued on towards Plaza Bol\u00edvar, the historic centre of Bogot\u00e1. The protestors stood around in the early afternoon as the sky darkened. They listened to the shouts of the anti-government speeches from a stage at the top of the plaza. The trouble started when the rain started falling.<\/p>\n

Some of the protestors pulled down the black cloth which had been put up to protect the historic buildings around the plaza. They burned the black cloth in the shelter of stone pillars. The riot police cleared the plaza with teargas and stun grenades. The water cannon trucks, black and square and as slow as tanks from the first world war, rolled in and sprayed the remaining protestors out into the narrow streets nearby. They would fight their way back into the plaza and be repelled again many times over the next few hours.<\/p>\n

Fires burned at intersections<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The rain continued to fall. The televisions stations divided their screens in four to show the different riots across the city. The police sirens kept a high pitched background beat as the TV presenters described the rioting.<\/p>\n

Stones were smashed on the ground and broken into smaller pieces and thrown at the riot police. Teargas was fired, the canisters skipped over the wet streets with a trail of white smoke behind them. The smoking canisters were picked up and thrown back towards the riot police. The water cannon trucks were surrounded and attacked and sprayed with graffiti and pounded with stones.<\/p>\n

Bus stations were smashed up with hammers. Fires burned at intersections in working class suburbs, the smoke could be seen from across the city. People with hoods up and their faces covered with scarves ran at the riot police and ran back as the riot police advanced. They chased each other up and down the streets as it got dark.<\/p>\n

They chased each other up and down the television screens in the wealthier northern suburbs where nobody protests. Bogot\u00e1 is used to such scenes. Rain. Plumes of teargas. Scarfs across faces. Smashed glass. Smashed stones. The streets in the rain soaked north, by comparison, were silent. Christmas trees flickered in the windows of multi-story apartment blocks. In the empty bars and the empty restaurants, bored staff watched the riots on television. There was an empty feeling in the streets like in the days after Christmas.<\/p>\n

For many people in the north of the city, they first heard the distinctive sound of what became known as the \u2018Cacerolazo<\/em>\u2019 from their phones. They saw videos of pots and pans being banged in protest on WhatsApp or Twitter or Facebook.<\/p>\n

It was only when they opened their windows or stepped out onto their balconies that they heard the tinklings of this new protest in the buildings around them. Windows which had previously been lights on the skyline revealed people, more and more as the night went on, banging pots and pans.<\/p>\n

It was happening all over the divided city. Videos of it went viral. The president held a press conference to denounce the riots and the vandalism of the late afternoon. On the news, after he was finished, they showed[iii]<\/a> the chess pattern lights of tall residential buildings ringing with the sound of the protest.<\/p>\n

In Cali, a large city in southwest Colombia, the protests had led to looting. The night had brought terror. They were calling it the \u2018Cali Purge\u2019. A curfew had been set. There were rumours of gangs breaking into houses. Vigilantes stood outside apartment buildings and shot at any shadow that moved.<\/p>\n