Colombia’s anti-government protests will continue amid widespread indignation over the security forces’ use of deadly force to silence opposition to President Ivan Duque.
The National Strike Committee, whose national strike last Wednesday sparked the protests, said Sunday they would call for another day of strikes on Wednesday.
According to newspaper El Espectador, 13 spontaneous protests erupted throughout Bogota‘s capital.
Cali Mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina said Sunday all public officials were given a day off to take to the streets on Monday after hearing that police had killed his cousin on Sunday.
In other cities, taxi drivers announced a day of protests on Monday.
Ospina and the mayors of Bogota and Colombia’s second largest city Medellin, among other, rejected Duque’s announcement he would militarize their cities as reports of widespread police brutality mount.
Colombia’s mayors dismiss Duque’s attempt to militarize cities
The United Nations’ human rights office on Sunday asked for investigations into the overwhelming number of reports that the security forces were committing human rights abuses in cities throughout the country.
Defense Minister Diego Molano on Monday announced the arrest of hundreds of people, claiming they had taken part in violence and vandalism, but ignored the countless accusations of state terrorism.
Colombia using terrorism to quell anti-government protests
The strike organizers and the political opposition have desperately been calling for peaceful protests, but seem unable to stop vandalism and other violent forms of protests.
Meanwhile, shopkeepers who survived the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus have increased difficulty keeping their businesses open as Duque and Molano’s mindboggling incompetence appears to be sinking the country into increasingly violent chaos.
The violence is fueled even more by Duque’s informal boss, far-right former President and former Medellin Cartel associate Alvaro Uribe, who has consistently accused any opponent to his puppet president of inciting hatred or being a “terrorist.”