By Carlos Aznárez on May 5, 2021
Photo: Colombia Informa
A huge popular uprising is underway in Colombia against the Álvaro Uribe regime, presided over by Ivan Duque. It is showing the world that when the people lose patience with the iniquities of capitalist policies, nothing stops them. Not even the bullets of the ESMAD police forces and of one of the most powerful armies on the continent. But it also brings out the ABC’s of dictatorial recipes, such as the most brutal repression, trying to put fear in the body of those who struggle and fight back.
To address the current situation and what to expect in the future, we interviewed the spokesperson of the Peoples’ Congress, Jimmy Moreno, a faithful representative of young people who do not back down and continue to fight every day in the streets of the country.
-What are the fundamental reasons why the Colombian people are fighting?
Historically, Colombia has been immersed in a social and armed conflict that has placed the social and political movement and the people in general in permanent mobilization. They are fighting to defend their rights and to demand from the State the fulfillment of the agreements and postponed demands. We have been in a dynamic of rising struggles of social movements since 2010. Since then, the movement of farmers, indigenous people, Afro-Colombians, students, union and social sectors began to emerge. Then there has been a whole dynamic of negotiation processes, which concluded with the agreement with the Party of the Commons (formerly the rebel forces FARC). In recent years, since 2016, the war on social movements has been escalating. A war that has meant the deaths of more than 1,000 human rights leaders, more than 230 signers of the peace accords, more than 200 social leaders prosecuted by the Colombian State. On the other hand, neoliberal policies have deepened, tax reforms, fiscal reforms, privatization of health and education, greater militarization of the territories and the role of Colombia in the framework of foreign policy with the United States, being a spearhead against progressive governments and popular struggles. And recently, the possible interference against our brother Bolivarian people of Venezuela. In 2019, huge wave of popular mobilization was felt, although later the pandemic arrived and slowed it down. The social crisis has worsened in this framework of health. It is a situation that we are seeing throughout the world. This government takes the opportunity to govern by means of decrees, thus deepening its model, deepening the gap, the right-wing policies and the deepening militarization of the territories and the genocidal practices of the Colombian State.
-The organization and decisiveness with which all sectors of the people are coming out is impressive. And there is a slogan that says: “The strike never ends.”
-In this sense, in April we called for a national strike day from the unions, social movements and the people in general. A day that was massive in spite of the restrictions that the Government wants to make in order to generate social and political control. The strike began in spite of attempts, by means of decrees, to stop the mobilizations and in spite of the threats against those who have been defending the dignity of the people. In Colombia, this national strike is once again unleashed and is being held in different cities of the country. It has been important in Valle, especially in Cali, which is still resisting in a strong and dignified manner. Also in Cauca the peasant movements, and since last Monday, the indigenous movement and the transport workers. Another flash-point is Chocó, where road blocks are being erected by the Indigenous and Afro-Colombian movements of the region. In central Colombia, people have been resisting since the 28th of April and in this sense, Duque has decided to deepen state terrorism. We have seen that every day the struggle increases in scale. Last Saturday (May 1), the national government made a call to militarize the cities and not give a political response to what the people have been demanding in the political stakes of the national strike. Today, we are talking about 37 homicides by the national police. Many people detained, more than 500, in a number of raids. There have been cases of sexual violence by the police in detention centers, many attacks on human rights defenders and there are comrades who have suffered eye injuries; more or less 18 people. Here again, we see police brutality through the Mobile Anti-Riot Squad (ESMAD). As a result of this national strike, last Sunday, the government withdrew the tax reform that implied more taxes for the poor and more exceptions for the rich. It is a victory, but the Colombian people remain in the streets. This past Monday, the Minister of Finance resigned, with all his work team, because the withdrawal of the tax reform is a defeat for the national government. But that is why we say: “The strike will not stop.” The strike will continue, because we are facing a bad government, a corrupt, criminal government, that does not listen to the people and wants to continue strengthening what we call “Duque’s package.” That ‘package’ intends to continue privatizing health, possibly presenting another tax reform, militarization, judicial criminalization and brutal repression. What we are demanding is the dismantling of the ESMAD. We inform all of The Americas that the people remain in a state of struggle, that they remain dignified and in resistance. Our slogan as social and political movements is to be with the people and demand the resignation of this bad government. The people understand that it only governs for the rich and that we, the poor, have proposals in terms of alternatives of popular power.
-In the face of this variant that there is now, in which the government, on the one hand, pretends to go back on the measure it wanted to take. This is clearly a popular victory. Now, by raising the bar and saying that “the strike does not stop” or “we want the bad government to go.” Do you think there is enough strength in the organizations and the people to raise the stakes and go for more? That is, to demand that Duque leave?
-Let’s say that basically when we analyze the situation, we see that the government is afraid. When they called for “Military Assistance” in the streets, it is because they are not capable of sustaining this dynamic of mobilization that is taking place in the country and that is why through fear and repression they want to contain the protest and the national strike. But unfortunately for the government, when the people rise up, their dignity is unbreakable. In this sense, this week more sectors joined, who have understood that this is the moment for unity and to unite the social struggles. That is why the indigenous movement has joined the strike. Also the transport workers, the cab drivers, the peasant movements and the more organized sectors such as the National Strike Committee. It seems to us that the strength, the sense of struggle of the people who, in spite of the repression, continue in the streets is most important. They are giving us an important lesson. When the people speak and rise up, we have to be there, raising those levels of struggle. There is a national strike for a long time, and the people are not going to allow them to continue to be mistreated. The people will continue to raise the political slogan “Out with Duque,” “Out with the bad government” and out with the neoliberal policies that have impoverished those sectors that are marginalized and impoverished. The spirit of the youth and students and that of the territorial forces of these sectors that have been suffering for years from this model, are the ones that are carrying the banners and are the vanguard of the social struggles.
There is no doubt that the Colombian regime has always been very violent in the repression of popular demands. But looking at images of what is being done by the police and military, it’s clear that a decision has been made to injure and kill with absolute impunity. Why do you think that much of this state violence has been centralized with greater force in the city of Cali?
-Because the strike is centered in Cali and in the whole department of Valle. Because towards the center of the city, people are blocking roads that connect with Cauca, and the government cannot allow this strike to grow stronger. So, starting from the character of this regime which is criminal, which is militarist, which applies military force with all its might, the president made the call to “kill people,” in a direct way, by sending the army into the streets.
So we see how the army — mobilized in the streets — shot indiscriminately at the people or bombed crowds from helicopters. What the Colombian state wants is to sow fear and contain the dynamics of mobilization, because it knows that this is going to spread to the rest of the country. That is why cities such as Cali, Manizales, Popayan, Pereira, Bogota and Medellin have seen many days of protests and also violent repression carried out against demonstrators. Ironically, most of these departments are governed by so-called “alternative governments,” as is the case of Cali, Bogota and Medellin. But evidently they are aligned with the national efforts to stigmatize and criminalize social protest and the military response to put down such protests.
-In the framework of the national strike, how have the trade union confederations been acting?
-There have been many pressures. From the trade union movement, there are many views on how to carry out this national strike. During the days around May 1st — International Worker’s Day — there were contradictions because some sectors called for nothing more than virtual marches, while others were calling for people to take the streets and to continue the national strike. That is why we must insist, on the social networks, that the organized sectors such as the social and trade union movements take action. We have to be together with the people, waging the struggle. And that was and is the dynamic of the national strike. A large part of the trade union movement of this class-conscious sector has been there, together with the people, fighting in the streets of those cities. We believe that the people themselves are leading these organized sectors to join the strike in some way, understanding that today in Colombia we have a very special opportunity to deepen this crisis of governance and present a different proposal for the country.
-We have seen a situation in the streets of Colombia, a phenomenon that also occurred in Chile with the revolt against Sebastián Piñera: thousands of young and very determined people. In the Chilean case, the rebel youth are characterized by their weariness with the government and repudiation of bourgeois politics, of traditional politicians, including those of the left. Is that also happening in Colombia, where the left is eyeing a post in the government or a seat in the Parliament?
-In fact, that great mass expressing itself is made up of mostly young people, targeting those politicians apathetic to that form of construction in politics. They are tired of electoral politics and liberal democracy. They are young people who have had to suffer the impact of those policies. They are young people whose hopes for a better future have been taken away from them. They suffer because there is no possibility of work, no possibility of study, nor of a decent pension. In this sense, they are the hope of our country and understand that it is in the streets where they must demand their rights and not allow them to continue to be taken away by political parties and the different administrations, both local and national. In this sense, we believe we have a good reading on the subject of the electoral struggle, in the same exercise of being a government, that allows us to advance in transformations. But, at this moment, it is through the construction of mechanisms of popular power, where the people can advance in terms of sovereign projects and build a different vision of the country. A framework where we recognize all the sectors and all the people that historically have been put down by this regime. I think it is very important that this struggle and this national strike allow us to organize and politicize the mobilized people; in this sense, to undertake what we have been calling from the Peoples’ Congress — the construction of popular power and our own forms of government.
-I wanted to offer you space to make an appeal, to say that this Colombian popular movement fighting in the streets today needs international solidarity.
-It is important at this moment in Colombia to express the role that the international community, the Latin American peoples, the social movements, with which we are joining forces, can play. It’s necessary to lay bare the repression and this situation of State terrorism, of genocide that has been taking place in our country and also to shed light on the proposals that have been raised in the framework of the national strike. We believe that, although solidarity is an important element, we are also calling for unity of action. What is happening in Colombia and in the struggles of the continent are problems shared by all countries and all peoples. It is the moment to look at how to articulate struggles against this empire, against this model, against this militarization that every day is getting stronger in our countries. We must work against the repression that we experience every day. We have to continue strengthening this popular internationalism expressed in the struggle, not only in the unity of action and in the possibilities of working for a Colombia under a project of dignity and good living, but also of uniting Latin America in our common struggle that brings together our peoples and aspires to build a continent for the dignity of our peoples. We want to express our gratitude for the solidarity that has been offered by our brothers and sisters. We are very grateful for this and we hope that it will continue in order to defeat this common enemy that we have in all our countries.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano, translation Resumen – English