Colombia’s capital Bogota imposed a 9PM curfew after police violently repressed peaceful protest and vandals shut down half the city’s mass transit system.
Police dispersed peaceful protesters against the unpopular government of President Ivan Duque from the central Bolivar square as they were trying to join a national “cacerolazo,” a sound protest in which participants bang on pots and pans.
The violent repression of the peaceful protests are making efforts by labor unions, student leaders and ordinary citizens to keep the national strike peaceful almost impossible.
Journalist Dylan Baddour
Violent clashes between police and violent protesters were reported earlier in the day at the Americas terminal in the southwest of the city, along the Septima, the city’s main avenue in the west and in the impoverished Ciudad Bolivar south of the city.
According to newspaper El Espectador, Transmilenio stations shut down in the capital’s entire central district, which has been cut off from the south, the southwest, and the north of the city.
Thirty-eight bus stops have suffered damage and were forced to be closed and 74 buses have been vandalized, forcing many of the commuters in the city of 7 million to walk home.
Videos of looters breaking into supermarkets and people’s homes were shared on social media as the city’s police force appears overwhelmed by the outbreaks of violence and vandalism.
Peaceful protesters outside of the city center complied with calls by strike organizers and held cacerolazos throughout the city in another attempt to “make them listen” to demands to talks.
But also outside the city center, police have used excessive force against these peaceful protesters.