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News > Colombia

Colombia's Indigenous Peoples Join National Strike in Bogota

  • Demonstrators take part in a protest as a national strike continues in Bogota, Colombia November 29, 2019.

    Demonstrators take part in a protest as a national strike continues in Bogota, Colombia November 29, 2019. | Photo: Reuters

Published 29 November 2019
Opinion

Demonstrators gathered once again in Bogota for the second “national strike” called in less than a week to protest the social and economic policy of Colombian President Ivan Duque.

Indigenous organizations like the Cric from the Cauca province, arrived at the capital Thursday in order to support the workers, students, and campesinos that have so far been the core of the national protests against the conservative government.

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Indigenous leaders will be participating in a meeting on Friday at 8 a.m., local time, in order to coordinate actions and strategies.

Thousands of people gathered in Seventh Avenue to express their discontent with what they call the “big package” of measures the government wants to implement.

The march was headed by a group of young people, all dressed in black with blue and yellow handkerchiefs around their necks, who moved along the street to a “batucada” or samba-like beat.

The crowd, waving Colombian and LGBTI flags, chanted the slogan “Resistance, resistance” and “The united people will never be defeated.”

Other demonstrators carried signs reading “The Chilean people taught me to say ‘Until dignity becomes the norm’” and “Let’s not be governed by fear,” among others.

Large groups of protesters also gathered at other sites around Bogota such as 80th Street, where a man carried a cross on his back with signs hanging from it reading “No more corrupt government,” “For dignified jobs” and “For all the Colombian peasants.”

The protests started with a national strike called by union leaders last Thursday to demand changes in the government’s social and economic policy, but it morphed into a popular movement that is attracting more support each day amid massive street demonstrations.

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