Colombia: Casa de Las Americas Condemns Repression of Protests

Cuba's Casa de las Americas issued this Thursday a statement condemning the brutal police repression by the government of President Iván Duque against social protests within the framework of the National Strike in Colombia.

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The text published on the website of the renowned cultural institution points out that the violent onslaught of the security forces against demonstrators, after more than a week of marches and events against the situation in the country, "has not been able to silence the popular protests."

The message points out that "the government of President Duque, of Uribe's lineage, does not conceive any other way to deal with the financial crisis caused by the pandemic than to burden the neediest sectors of the population."

In addition to calling for the cessation of crimes against the popular sectors and impunity, the declaration refers that as days go by, "the scandal of crime grows without the just demand of the people, which is already clearly aimed at the head of the regime, giving way."

The document also rejects the complicit silence of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the UN Commission on Human Rights. It expresses that they seem not to have heard of the massacre in the brother country.

It also criticizes statements made by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who affirmed at the Conference on the Americas, that "Latin Americans are shaping their own future" and the role of the United States is "to help in whatever way we can while Latin America writes its next chapter".

The statement calls this message from the White House "rhetorical consolation, which in truth hides repeated interference" and "says nothing to those who are protesting and falling for a dignity that has always been postponed."

Casa de las Americas also denounces that the Peace Agreement between the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) "has been shamefully ignored by a power that does not hesitate to continue killing and depriving millions of Colombians of their most basic rights."

Furthermore, it maintains that "only an effective formalization of a climate of peace can open the way to true justice in Colombia."

"Casa de las Americas is in solidarity with the demands of the Colombian people, and with the writers and artists of that country who demand peace, justice, and dignity for all," the text concludes.