At least 19 people were killed and hundreds injured during days of protests across Colombia
At least 19 people were killed and hundreds injured during days of protests across Colombia.
Violent protests continue around Colombia despite the withdrawal of proposed tax reforms and the resignation of the country's finance minister. At least 19 people were killed and hundreds more injured in days of demonstrations across Colombia.
Protests against a tax overhaul tied to the pandemic have morphed into a national outcry over rising poverty, unemployment and inequality. The dead include a ninth grader who went to protest with his brother an artist shot in the head as cameras rolled and a teen whose mother’s cries.
At least 19 people were killed and hundreds more injured during days of protests across Colombia, in which tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to demonstrate against a tax overhaul meant to fill a pandemic-related fiscal hole.On Sunday
President Iván Duque announced that he would withdraw the current proposal, and instead seek a new plan, this time borne out of consensus. The reform is not a whim he said, the reform is a necessity.But the decisions have done little to quell public anger in Colombia, and the protests have morphed into a national outcry over rising poverty, unemployment and inequality set off by the arrival of the coronavirus last year.
Latin America, and South America in particular, has been especially pummeled by the virus, and many countries in the region face dire fiscal conditions if reforms are not made.
Mr. Duque was among the first to try to address his country’s economic problems, and the public response here does not bode well for other regional leaders, said Sergio Guzmán, the director of Colombia Risk Analysis, a consultancy.
This is one of those moments where a key break in society is happening said Mr. Guzmán. And people are fed up and waking up to the power of the streets.The protests in Colombia have continued, in part, because of anger over what several human rights groups have called a heavy-handed state response in trying to control them.
Several instances of police abuse have been captured on video in recent days, including one in which a young protester is seen kicking a police officer on a motorbike. The video shows the officer respond by shooting at the protester as he runs away
