In the last year, 3.6 million Colombians have found themselves living in poverty and 2.7 million in extreme poverty. This increase means that 42.5 percent of the population was poor in 2020, up from 35.7 percent the previous year. Today in Colombia more than 21 million inhabitants get by on less than 331,688 pesos a month (about 88 US dollars) and 7.4 million with less than 145,004 pesos (about 39 dollars). These estimates suggest that the country has lost the progress of the past decade in the fight against poverty.
The effects of the pandemic and the measures of lockdown they were especially felt in large cities. In the capital Bogotá, for example, the poor are 3.3 million. In the department of Antioquia, with the capital Medellín, the second most important city in the country, there are 2.3 million; in that of Valle del Cauca, with the capital Cali, the third largest Colombian city, 1.6 million; in that of Bolívar 1.7 million; in that of Córdoba 1.1 million; in that of Atlántico one million.
The two categories most affected by the crisis are women and young people. Today 46.7 percent of Colombians live in poverty, while for men the percentage is 40.1. According to the director of the National Administrative Department of Statistics, “the gender gap has increased during the pandemic and this means that poverty is greatest in those cases where women are the breadwinners.” The situation has also become more precarious for young people: the employment rate of people aged 14 to 28 is currently 42 per cent, 1.6 per cent less than in the January-March 2020 quarter. Youth unemployment is equal to 23.9 per cent, 3.4 per cent higher than in the January-March 2020 quarter.
At the center of the protests
This explains why young people have been the protagonists of social protests in Colombia, protests that erupted in response to the tax reform in April and that over time have incorporated other demands, such as the refusal of the government’s health reform. In the 2019 protests, young people had organized to draw attention to a situation that the pandemic has helped to worsen. They saw not only their job opportunities dwindling, but also the possibility of obtaining a higher education. Public universities did not have enough state investment to expand their receptivity and studying in private universities had become too expensive. Then came the pandemic, which in addition to closing the job market to young people, prevented them from studying. Last year 243,801 students dropped out, 2.7 percent of the total.
From all these data it is easy to understand why the most significant mobilizations were in the poor neighborhoods of large cities, where a bad starting situation has visibly worsened with the pandemic. They are also the places where illegal groups (guerrilla dissidents, drug trafficking organizations or other forms of crime) operate that consider young people as possible recruits. These neighborhoods have welcomed and continue to welcome families forced to abandon everything they have to seek protection in the anonymity of large cities. The young people of these families suffer an uprooting that only ends up worsening due to the lack of job opportunities and adequate education.
As if that were not enough, the daily relationship with the police is defined by a constant tension, where abuses, illegal arrests and threats are the order of the day. What was an endemic problem only got worse during the pandemic as law enforcement was given new powers to enforce containment measures. While young people and their families could only stay indoors to impoverish themselves, without the possibility of changing the situation, on the street the police were increasingly powerful and in control of public space. And when the economic situation turned desperate, the clash between these boys and the police was one of unprecedented violence in Colombia’s recent past.
Another problem makes the situation even more complicated. Colombians are increasingly distrusting state institutions and parties. According to the Observatory of Democracy, satisfaction with institutions in 2004 was 57.7 percent while today it is 18.2 percent. This is accompanied by a loss of confidence in the media and social organizations.
Many think that the only way to get answers is to protest. They no longer believe in representative democracy. The most immediate consequence is that the communication channels between the government and the demonstrators have been cut off. Everyone insists that the only way out, after a month of strike, is to negotiate. But identifying the interlocutors is not easy. Although a National Strike Committee has been formed, with which the government tries to dialogue, participants in the protests continue to argue that the committee members do not represent them. And they don’t do it on a whim. An example above all: the only young woman involved is an activist of the university student movement, and this contrasts with the fact that many demonstrators are dropping out of school, and will not have the opportunity to enter the university.
Few carrots, many sticks
In the meantime, the government has focused on a strategy based on public order to contain the mobilization. It criminalizes protests, places disproportionate emphasis on the material damage caused by the strike, presents itself as a victim of electoral interests and, using all these tricks, only contributes to weakening the voice of those who protest. If you add to this the complicity and the lack of criticism of the police violence, it is easy to understand that the government itself contributes to prolong the strike and to widen the protest.
The weakness of the administration led by President Iván Duque, whose tax reform has not even had the support of his own party, is the main obstacle to a way out. The president does not have the necessary power to convene a dialogue on the measures to be taken and his method is reduced to a few carrots, and many sticks in the streets. Sticks that open up new scenarios of police abuse and criticism from the international community for human rights violations. In an unprecedented decision, the national government initially rejected the request of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to pay a visit to Colombia to assess the human rights situation in the country after a month’s strike. Then the government accepted but, he specified, “not at this moment”.
The most dramatic thing is that with each passing day the opportunity is lost to adopt and implement emergency measures in favor of the many impoverished families. With each passing day, the government’s strategy undermines the confidence of citizens in the battered Colombian institutions. The control bodies that should ensure that citizens’ rights are respected have been co-opted by the government and have lost all capacity to carry out their functions of overseeing the work of the government and law enforcement agencies.
For its part, the political class seems to have fallen into a deep sleep, caused by electoral interests in view of the vote scheduled for next year. The parliamentary left, which has always been the protagonist of social demands, is cautious because it wants to avoid being accused of the chaos and abuses committed by the demonstrators. The right lurks because it knows that a degenerating and wearing out protest offers it the opportunity to brush up on its proclamations against the left-wing “Castrochavist” and in favor of the iron fist. The center, on the other hand, appears to be on the verge of disintegrating. The possible ways out seem remote and the Colombian political leadership is in decline, now without ideas.
(Translation by Sara Cavarero)
.