A second wave of significant protests took center stage during Iván Duque's administration. Ignoring and defying one of the most enigmatic, contagious, and dangerous diseases in recent history, important sectors of society decided to take to the streets to finally settle the scores left pending from the 2019 protests, which had to be suspended due to COVID-19. Moreover, during a year of significant government decisions and maneuvers aimed at tackling the crisis brought by the new disease, protesters arrived with new demands and grievances.
A tax reform and healthcare system reform on the horizon were two of the main reasons for the social mobilizations that began on April 28th: blockades on major interurban roads, which prevented the distribution of food and essential medical supplies, crowds, vandalism and violent acts, and the start of the third epidemiological peak of COVID-19, the deadliest and most invasive to date.
The reasons for which the National Strike Committee (CNP) activated social mobilization in the country were succumbing to pressures. The tax reform was withdrawn. Days later, the health reform, championed from the beginning by the national government, was rejected in the joint commissions of the Senate and House of Representatives. But the crowds, blockades, and anarchic acts continued, and with them, the surge in the contagion curve and occupancy in Intensive Care Units across the country. Today, the national health system is almost at its limit of care capacity, despite the fact that vaccination against the new disease is progressing as expected.
The National Strike Committee's announcement to suspend the mobilizations, which take place every Wednesday, does not seem to dampen the spirits of some protesters. One of the characteristics of the National Strike is the absence of a uniform social movement capable of channeling the demands of each protesting group in the country (peasants, teachers, workers, etc.). In this scenario, the younger ones, who have been dubbed “First Line,” refuse to follow the directives of the National Strike Committee. The latter is led by veteran union leaders and some student leaders from public universities (with little female representation), who are the voice of only a part of the protesters.
The claims suggested by Nelson Alarcón, executive of the Colombian Federation of Educators (Fecode), of belonging to the Senate of the Republic generated noise in the country, especially in those sectors that do not yet identify with traditional union leaders, but that are convinced that street actions must continue.
The national picture suggests that there is no consensus between the National Strike Committee (CNP) and a significant portion of the protesters. The young people of Bogotá’s “Front Line” announced that they will remain in the streets because, according to them, the CNP leadership does not represent them. This decision is based on a couple of underlying factors: on the one hand, 90% of the country’s youth identified with the National Strike until mid-May, according to a survey by the Universidad del Rosario, El Tiempo, and the firm Cifras y Conceptos. This high approval rating is due to the situation of the “NEETs”—some 3 million young people (and rising) who neither study nor work—who account for 27.7% of Colombia’s youth, according to figures from DANE.
On the other hand, the legitimacy of the state and its counterpart, the CNP, in areas where youths from the “First Line” continue to protest is almost nil. This is the case of Portal de las Américas in the locality of Kennedy (Bogotá), where the presence of the Secretary of Government has not managed to quell the situation between protesters and the Police, and of Siloé (Cali), where a group of youths continues to gather each night.
Just yesterday the ESMAD had to intervene in Medellín, due to the mobilization of about 300 people, who were heading west of the capital. Disturbances and clashes occurred on Carrera 80 in the city. A sample of what different social sectors had already been claiming, “the Strike Committee does not represent all the people demonstrating in the streets.”.
Last night, in Bogotá, clashes between civilians and ESMAD uniformed officers left at least four people injured. The same scene repeated itself in Bucaramanga, where there were clashes between the ESMAD and the mobilized crowd. Given the intensification of street actions, the question arises: did the strike really end? Or, on the contrary, are those young people who have insisted since May on distancing themselves from veteran leaders and CNP delegates now arriving with more autonomy, rebellion, and determination to demonstrate their leadership in this social context?.
Another question arises at this moment: Is the Colombian social protest losing credibility? The suspension of demonstrations by the CNP comes at a time when the leadership of the movement has a very negative image. On the one hand, the persistence of some blockades within Cali and in certain regions of the country has delegitimized the protest due to shortages in municipalities and extortion on several blocked roads. Furthermore, the peak of the pandemic the country is experiencing has made the CNP appear negligent, as it did not suspend mobilizations when infections and deaths rose to the point of collapsing the healthcare system.
Now the national government's negotiations must consider young people, especially the “Ninis,” to begin serious and formal discussions, taking into account that this sector is daring in its street actions. As it has been learned, a national protest concert is planned in the coming days and the submission of a package of bills that responds to the CNP's demands on July 20. However, all these decisions and fluctuations continue to occur amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to claim lives and occupy the national hospital system to the breaking point.
The health implications of the decisions that are made cannot be left out. At this moment, this is one of the most delicate, decisive, and important aspects to consider, taking into account the medical and care needs throughout the country, the high number of infections, the uncertainty about new variants, and the lack of knowledge about the real durability of vaccine-induced immunity.