Anti-government protests have arisen the past week and for the eighth straight day, rights groups are continuing to protest over concerns for excessive violence by security forces. Protestors are showing no sign of backing off. The protests started by an unpopular tax reform that the government said aimed to stabilise the economy which was hit hard due to the coronavirus. The working middle class people said the plan favoured the rich while it put more pressure on them. Violence increased late Monday in the country’s third largest city, cali where protestors said police opened fire to disperse the crowds. Sources say police indiscriminately shot at the demonstrators even from helicopters. 24 people have been killed. On Tuesday evening, 30 civilians and 16 police officers were injured. The mayor’s office said in a state-ment, the mob tried to “burn alive” 10 police officers by setting fire to a small police station. 550 arrests had been made in connection to vandalism and looting. The number of people living in poverty has tripled in the last year.
These protests are a sign of a social movement. Just like in the United States after the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, people took to the street to demand change. While both these circumstances are very different the idea of taking to the streets and demanding change is the same. The government is infringing on the citizens rights. This is becoming a more prevalent thing in South America. This event is important because it brings awareness to Colombia and shows how corrupt the government system is. While the government had the right idea of looking to help the citizens by taxing, they are taxing the wrong people. The people they are taxing heavily are the middle class who worked hard and kept their jobs barely supporting their families. They should have taxed the rich like the drug lords etc.
To get a better understanding on what is going on in Colombia we will use the geopolitical analysis to examine what the government is doing that could potentially bring change to the political system. The idea to help the poor and people who were hit hard during the pandemic is a good idea but President Duque targeted the wrong group of people to tax from. These protests will not solve change in the short term, especially if it is burning buildings and killing officers in efforts to get back on the government.