Amid Protests And Police Violence, Colombia’s President Condemns Blockades That Have…

These are turbulent times in Colombia. Citizens of the South American nation have been protesting across the country for more than three weeks, initially in response to a proposed tax increase. There have been reports of beatings and killings of protesters by the country’s police, and some protesters have attacked members of the police themselves. Fifty eight people have died since the protests began, including 19 related to the demonstrations (one policeman and 18 protestors or bystanders), according to Human Rights Watch. The remaining deaths are still being reviewed.

In an interview last week, Colombian President Iván Duque told Forbes that he supports peaceful protests, and that the killings by the police are under investigation. “If there is any conduct by a member of the public force that goes beyond the law, not only do we express our condemnation, but we [also] want to have rapid investigations and sanctions,” Duque said. But he appeared to indicate that the police actions may have been justified, in his view, saying that the 14 cases of deaths or beatings being investigated by the attorney general’s office “presumptively are associated with levels of confrontation in violent scenes where there was vandalism.”  

The president did allow that there could be wrongdoing by the police. “The police on an annual basis undertake more than 30 million police procedures,” Duque said. “Are there cases of abuse within 30 million police procedures? Yes, there are—there might be.” 

Others describe the situation in much starker terms. “Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in horrendous circumstances in Colombia in the past, but I have never seen a scenario like the one that is developing today,” said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch. “You have massive demonstrations confronted by high levels of police brutality across the country.”

Senator Patrick Leahy (D -Vermont), who’s long been outspoken regarding human rights, tweeted on Friday, May 21: “People have a right to peacefully protest. Shootings and abuses by the Colombian police must end. Violence by some protesters and road blockades that limit access to food and people’s ability to work must also end, but these are no excuse for police brutality.”

On May 14, 55 Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging him to denounce the violence in Colombia, freeze sales of weapons to the country and encourage dialogue. So far, neither Blinken nor President Joe Biden have made a public statement regarding the situation in Colombia. On May 4, the U.S. State Department did issue a statement sending condolences to the families of those who have died and “urging the utmost restraint by public forces to prevent additional loss of life.” 

In response to the demonstrations, in early May President Duque withdrew the tax proposal he had put forth in mid April, which would have raised taxes on businesses and individuals and potentially increased the number of items subject to the value-added tax, which would have impacted the middle class. The country’s finance minister, Alberto Carrasquilla, also resigned; Duque replaced him with his commerce and trade minister, José Manuel Restrepo. But many Colombians remain upset about issues such as rising unemployment and economic inequality. The country’s economy contracted 6.8% in 2020. And the poverty rate increased to 42% of the population as a result of the pandemic, up from 37%, according to the president, who said that most of the increase was in urban areas.

Yet Duque exuded optimism, touting 1.1% economic growth in the first quarter of 2021 and citing predictions that Colombia’s economy will grow more than 5% this year. “Why? Because there is dynamism,” he said. 

Duque issued his strongest criticism at protestors who are blockading roads. “We condemn the blockages, because they are only aimed at sabotaging the economic recovery,” he said. “Yes, we will use force, in a proportional way, according to human rights, but we cannot see cities that are not getting food or not getting fuel or not getting vaccines or not getting medical supplies.”

Duque, who is 44 years old, was elected in 2018 from the Democratic Center Party, a party created by his mentor, former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe. Duque had spent a dozen years as one of Colombia’s representatives to the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. and served as a senator in Colombia before running for president. His popularity has ebbed — falling to a 32% approval rating in a late April poll, down from 43% before the pandemic. His four-year term runs through 2022. Term limits prevent him from running again. 

The president enumerated the programs his government was rolling out to increase employment — including one targeted at getting the private sector to hire people age 18 to 28 for which the government is subsidizing 25% of the minimum wage, as well as free public university tuition and technological education for the lowest income families and the middle class. “This is the most ambitious education program ever seen in Colombia,” Duque claimed. But none of these plans have stopped the protests.

The tax reform proposed in April had been targeted to improve the country’s fiscal situation, — with the aim of maintaining an investment grade rating on government debt. On May 19, S&P Global Ratings downgraded Colombia’s sovereign rating to junk; two other firms — Fitch and Moody’s — have kept it at investment grade. 

Duque acknowledged that both the debt and the deficit increased during the pandemic. (Debt grew to 65% of GDP, from 57% in 2019.) “We are committed … to have a reduction of the deficit and the debt in the mid term,” he said, while also working on providing a “social safety net” for Colombians. “We have been having conversations with the rating agencies and we have said we are going to work on eliminating unnecessary expenses … and generating long term income.”

New finance minister Restrepo, in an interview with Forbes, said the government is at work building a consensus with members of the society— politicians, academics, entrepreneurs and young people—about a new tax plan. “This new consensus—it’s based on ‘those who earn more, pay more.’ And we don’t want to touch the middle class,” he said. “Because, of course, affecting the middle class is a big issue.”