At FIU, Concern Grows Over Colombian Protestors Marching In The Streets Over Tax Reform Proposal

Michael McEwen / Contributing Writer

For over a month, anti-government demonstrators and police have clashed in the streets of Colombia over an array of social issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the country. 

Protests began in late April after the administration of President Ivan Duque announced a controversial tax reform bill which prescribed specific increases on fuel, pensions and public services.

Still reeling from the economic downturn of 2020 due to the pandemic, the Duque administration argued that the tax reform would allow the country to rebuild its tax revenue in order to continue payments toward their international debt balance, as well as the maintenance of various social programs. 

“Many people in Colombia survive off of informal work, whether the food industry or selling crafts on the street,” said Diana Ramirez, President of the Colombian Studies Group at FIU. As a student organization comprised largely of graduate students, the Colombian Studies Group seeks to establish productive conversations on a wide range of issues concerning Colombia. 

“Because of the pandemic shutdown many people lost the ability to head to the streets and make a living,” said Ramirez. 

 It was because of this that, frustrated by the government’s decision to propose such a reform while still in the midst of the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of Colombians took to the streets in protest across the country, marching in more than half of all of the country’s municipalities.

However, only days into the protests, demonstrators were met with violent crackdowns by police and state security forces which left as many as 63 dead and 2,000 injured. Grainy videos provided by cell phone cameras — often shot by bystanders or protestors — have served as the only evidence of what demonstrators are calling systemic violence at the hands of police.

Photo by Ricardo Arce on Unsplash

As one of the countries most affected by inequality, reforms such as these are destined to produce rigid divides between social groups throughout Colombia. 

“The government was trying to tax the daily products people consume like sugar, rice and fuel. So the poor of the country asked, ‘well, the rich are not paying their taxes, why should we?’,” said Ramirez.

As a response to the growing resistance to the proposed tax reform — as well as the violence spurned by it — President Duque withdrew the controversial bill within a week of its announcement. However, as the protests have escalated, so too has the scope of demands; that which was once about taxes was now a reckoning of Colombia’s violent and corrupt past. 

…

 “The tax reforms were the trigger, but many of the circumstances that originated some of the complaints are historical, and they date back at least to the beginning of this government,” said Dr. Victor Uribe, who is himself Colombian and serves as the chair of the History department at FIU. A considerable bloc within the burgeoning protest movement are Colombia’s students, disaffected with what they perceive to be rampant corruption and lack of investment in opportunities for youth. 

It is because of this that, to Uribe, the leading role of young Colombians in the protests comes as no surprise. 

“A lot of the issues today have to do with structural poverty and unemployment in Colombia, and these issues particularly affect the young people,” said Uribe. 

In a similar quality to the student-led protest movement in Chile in 2019, occasionally violent protests have been met with increased violence by police forces. This is especially so in the case of Cali, the most populous city in Colombia’s southwestern region.

According to NGOs and rights groups on the ground, Cali hosts the country’s highest numbers for both deaths and injuries relating to the violence. These reports have been backed by chilling footage of police forces firing live ammunition at protestors and, on occasion, ramming vehicles directly into crowds.

And on Friday, May 28, President Duque announced the deployment of military troops to Cali in response to three additional deaths.

A month into the protests, life in Cali is now gridlocked by both civilian and military roadblocks. Grocery shipments are stopped short and many are unable to reach work.

“We are looking at many more weeks or months of protests which will threaten the livelihoods of many Colombians, especially those who rely on transportation to get to and from work,” said Dr. Uribe, “Either we little by little negotiate these disagreements and embrace more peaceful and democratic methods to contain protests, or we continue to radicalize positions.” 

But with an attempt at a national dialogue stalling, protestors remain steady in their commitment to see out structural change in Colombia. 

“Unfortunately, the division continues in Colombia. If anything, it’s worse than ever,” said Ramirez, who still has family living in Colombia.

Complaints of police brutality have landed specifically at the feet of the Mobile Anti-Disturbance Squad, or ESMAD in Spanish, a nationalized anti-riot police force which belongs to the Ministry of Defense. 

Photo by Ricardo Arce on Unsplash

The breakdown in dialogue was largely due to a concerning rise in the disappearances of protestors — as many as 200 — as the protests have developed. 

According to Uribe, this is indicative of the staying power of structural violence in Colombia.

 “Many of the expenses that went into the military in the early 2000’s under Plan Colombia were misguided and sometimes misused, specifically in the ‘falsos positivos’ scandal,” said Uribe.

The falsos positivos — or false positives — were a group of up to 10,000 citizens who, drawn to job offers in rural Colombia, instead found themselves disappeared and eventually executed by Colombian security forces in an attempt to inflate military metrics in the country’s campaign against FARC and ELN guerrillas.

The scandal drew widespread condemnation both in Colombia and beyond, and as investigations have developed so too have conclusions formed over the role of former President Álvaro Uribe in the events. As the figurehead of Colombia’s Centro Democratico Party, the same party to which President Duque belongs, concerns over former President Uribe’s role in the violence of the past month have grown even more pronounced.

A recent Gallup poll shows that, among Colombians, Duque has become the country’s least-popular president with a record-breaking 76% disapproval rating.

“These are governments that derive their legitimacy from the assumption that they have a heavy hand against disorder. They are showing that they are tough, but unfortunately ‘toughness’ means that lives are being lost and people are being mistreated,” said professor Uribe.

It is the effect of the sporadic violence at the hands of protestors which worries Ramirez the most.

“The government benefits from having the protestors confronting the police. It’s a good way for the government to claim they are protecting the ‘ciudanos de bien’—the good citizens.”

These sentiments have been expressed as high up in the Colombian government as President Duque’s National Security Advisor Rafael Guarín. 

In a series of tweets posted only days before his virtual appearance at FIU’s 6^th Annual Hemispheric Security Conference on May 17, Guarín leveled against claims that police forces were carrying out acts of brutality. Instead, he claimed, the violence was instigated by left-wing opposition leader Gustavo Petro, a claim which has since landed him criminal charges in congress.

But amid the worry, there is room for hope.

“One thing I think these protests could result in is a structural transformation of the police in Colombia,” said Professor Uribe. 

“Citizen security is not about having armed thugs in the streets, it’s about having well-trained, well-educated police forces using the best practices for democracies, not for semi-authoritarian regimes.”