Brussels (IYCW News) – At least fifty-eight people have been killed by police and dozens of others have gone missing since the outbreak of social unrest in Colombia last April 28, 2021. Riots have occurred in various cities at the expense of young workers, women, peasants, fishermen and the urban poor. Police and soldiers have brutally fought the demonstrators in downtown streets.

Colombia is a country that has had a succession of neoliberal governments, which for decades have been implementing a series of anti-people reforms and laws in the areas of health, education, social security and labour, supported by a strong military and police system.

The government's latest attempt at fiscal reform, the cynicism of the ultra-right imposing their neoliberal measures, unleashed a massive popular rebellion, highlighting the structural crisis that the country is going through and the failure of this model on the continent. The government's response to demonstrations has been more than distressing: armed repression, human rights violations, disappearances of social leaders, sexual abuses and real urban massacres in different regions of the country.

Since April 28, 2021, the world has witnessed the new social outbreak in the sister republic of Colombia. We have seen and heard the clamor of youth, women, workers, peasants and indigenous people mobilized throughout the country. We have also observed the disproportionately violent, brutal and criminal actions of the military and police forces such as the Mobile Riot Squadron (ESMAD) against the people protesting in the streets. We have little or no access to this news, and even less is known about the causes of this situation.

Colombia is one of the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that has had a succession of neoliberal governments, which for decades have been implementing a series of anti-people reforms and laws in the areas of health, education, social security and labor, supported by a strong military and police system prepared for the context of war that the country is experiencing, and all of this against a backdrop of constant violations of peace treaties by the state.

The government's latest attempt at fiscal reform, the cynicism of the ultra-right, represented by one of the most infamous figures in the history of the Americas - Álvaro Uribe Vélez - and his puppet Iván Duque, the current President of the Republic, have, by imposing their neoliberal measures, unleashed a massive popular rebellion, highlighting the structural crisis that the country is going through and the failure of this model on the continent. The government's response to this energetic demonstration of the disagreement of the majorities has been more than distressing: armed repression, violation of the demonstrators’ human rights, disappearances of social leaders, sexual abuses and real urban massacres in different regions of the country.