Colombians stage Sliema protest in solidarity with deaths in South American country

Report by Audrey Jandin

A sizeable group of members of Malta’s  Colombian community gathered in Sliema’s Independence gardens on Tuesday night, paying tribute to activists who died in protests in their country in the last few days.

In Colombia, the mobilisation started on 28 April against a tax reform which has since been withdrawn, but has turned into a general protest against the right-wing government.

The protests, particularly in the Cali state, have been marked by violence.

Nearly 100 students and workers participated in the Sliema demonstration, gathering at around 6pm on Tuesday with a minute’s silence and then continued with protest songs including the national anthem.

Signs displayed read: ““I’m in Malta but my heart is in Colombia”, and “contra la reforma tributaria” (against the tax reform).

One protestor, Sindy, told MaltaToday she hopes to launch an international aid effort towards the respect of human rights in Colombia. “When the people go out to demonstrate in the middle of a pandemic, it means that the government is more dangerous than the virus,” she said.

At around 8pm, police officers arrived on the scene to calmly put an end to the demonstration, which gathering was not sanctioned by police due to the public health restrictions.

The UN , the European Union, the United States and NGOs have called for calm and denounced the repression of demonstrations in Colombia , which have left around 20 dead and hundreds injured, while new protests are expected Wednesday.

“We are deeply alarmed by the events in the city of Cali in Colombia, where the police opened fire on demonstrators who oppose tax reform, killing and injuring a number of people,” Marta Hurtado said, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.

The day after the withdrawal of the tax reform on Sunday 2 May, Colombian finance minister Alberto Carrasquilla presented his resignation to President Ivan Duque. “My retention in government would make it difficult to quickly and effectively build the necessary consensus to carry out a new reform proposal,” Carrasquilla said.

Colombia is going through a third wave of infections with more than 2.9 million cases and more than 75,000 deaths. Its GDP fell by 6.8% in 2020, unemployment reached 16.8% and the poverty rate climbed to 42.5%.