translated from Spanish: Intense protests take Colombia in rejection of tax reform and arrive at the President’s house

Episodes of violence and unrest returned this Saturday to Bogota, Cali and other cities in Colombia on the fourth day of protests against the Colombian government’s tax reform, which coincided with the First of May, a celebration of workers that took place peacefully in the early hours of the day. The riots began in the central Plaza de Bolívar at the end of the afternoon and spread through other points of the city, reaching even to the north, where a crowd gathered in front of the condominium where the Colombian president, Ivan Duque, has his private residence, to express his nonconformism with the Government, was dispersed with gases by the Policía.La Police also used tankers to open the passage through the Seventh Race at the height of the Street 145 where the president’s residence is. In the same northern part of Bogota there were looting to the warehouse of the Country neighborhood of the supermarket chain Success and hooded broke glass from banks and shops.” After a quiet day, violent groups vandalized shops in the north and center, forcing the intervention of the police,” reported the mayor of Bogota, Claudia López.La mandataria added that she regretted that these events tarnished a “day of youth and just demands. Violence and vandalism don’t solve anything, it only makes everything worse.” Authorities did not report injuries this Saturday, but Ombudsman Carlos Camargo reported that three people were killed in Cali in recent days in situations linked to the protests and that three other deaths are under verification. This week, a death was also reported in Neiva, capital of the Huila department, while in Soacha, a town near Bogota, police captain Jesús Alberto Solano was slain because of this Saturday’s unrest in Bogota, the Transmilenio company canceled the operation “on all trunks of the system for having no security guarantees for users”. MULTITUDES IN THE STREETS OF CALIThe most crowded demonstrations took place again in Cali, capital of the department of valle del Cauca and third city of the country, where tens of thousands of people gathered in the sector known as Loma de la Cruz and in another so-called Puerto Rellena, which following the protests is now called Puerto Resistencia.The demonstrations in Cali , in which the colors of the national flag predominated, four “chivas” (typical passenger buses in the mountain areas of Colombia) arrived this Saturday, taking dozens of indigenous people from the neighboring Department of Cauca to reinforce the protests against tax reform that Duke has already announced has not been enough to calm the spirits. Despite the authorities’ recommendations to avoid tumult due to the covid-19 pandemic, which is at its third peak in the country, there were many protesters in Cali without wearing the coronavirus protection mask. THEY TAKE DOWN STATUE OF THE PROCER NARON There were also protests in Pasto, capital of the department of Nariño, bordering Ecuador, where a mob toppled the statue of the prosperous Antonio Nariño (1765-1823), considered the Precursor of the Independence of Colombia.Last Wednesday, the first day of the protests, misak Indians toppled in Cali the statue of the founder of the city, the Spanish conqueror Sebastián de Belalcázar.There were also minor disorders in other cities such as Barranquilla , in the Caribbean region, and in Bucaramanga (east), after concluding labor day celebrations in which tax reform was at the centre of demonstrations.

Original source in Spanish