Columbian protests| Citizens' growing demands| Our view

Here's everything you need to know about what's happening in Colombia

We have been hearing stories over the past few weeks, that Colombian cities and towns have been ravaged by protests since the end of April. So the reasons the protests even began was because at first the people weren't happy with the government's new tax policy but now the reasons have become far more deep rooted. So why were the people unhappy with the government's new tax policy? Let's roll back in time to the last week of April when the government announced the new tax reform bill. The bill was being proposed as an economic measure to bounce the Colombian economy. The bill would have increased taxes, lowered the threshold at which salaries are taxed, removed several exemptions currently enjoyed by individuals and increased taxes in import businesses. Basically anyone with a monthly income of 2.6 million pesos which is roughly $684 would have been affected by this bill, and it is believed that the middle class would have been the most impacted because of this bill. The government believes that the bill is key to economic growth because Colombia’s gross domestic product dropped by 6.8 percent last year. The tax reforms bill was withdrawn just four days later. 

Now you guys, why have the protests continued after the bill was withdrawn?

Now the bill was withdrawn on the 2nd of may but the protests not only did not die down after that but only intensified further. This is because the reasons behind the protests grew from just repealing the law to various issues such as the mis-management of the covid situation in the country, vaccine shortages and broader topics such as poverty and inequality in the country.

What happened over the past month?

A series of protests began in Colombia on April 28 against President Ivan Duque Marquez's plan to increase taxes and reform the country's health care system. Over the next couple of days, thousands of people took to the streets in various cities. Despite the president's promises to modify his plan, the protests continued.

The Office of Groups has found multiple human rights violations during the protests. The agency also stated that the violent response of the authorities led to more demonstrations.

On May 3, 2021, Fecode and Temblores reported that police violence had been reported in over a thousand cases.

Human Rights Watch said it had received reports of abuses by members of Colombia's police force in the province of Cali. The organisation's head, Jos Miguel Vivanco, criticised the country's authorities for their failure to control and supervise the police.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein noted that police abuses during the protests were unacceptable.

In Cali, some civilians have been seen shooting at protesters. Videos taken by eyewitnesses show people dressed in plainclothes firing at demonstrators.

Videos and photos taken during the violent protests in Colombia show police firing tear gas canisters at protesters and demonstrators throwing rocks at them. One of the dead is Marcelo Agredo, a teenager who was shot and killed by a police officer in April.

The plan also included a tax cut for low-income families.

The country's economy contracted by 7% in 2014. The number of people living in poverty increased to 43% in 2014.

Why we feel the protests won't die down anytime soon

The reasons behind the protests now are no more problems that can be immediately solved. Issues such as poverty, inequality and the mismanagement of the covid crisis are not problems that can be solved overnight. This would take time, especially for the government and the people to reach a common consensus. Also the protesters demand that the riot police be disbanded immediately and be tried by an independent body. For the following reasons we believe that it would take a long time for the protest to die down and a long time for a consensus to be reached.