Colombia Deploys Troops After Month of Violent Protests

The Colombian government has deployed the army to its capital of Bogota, after weeks of anti-government protests and clashes with police left at least seven people dead and over 400 more wounded. The move came after President Palma announced he was dissolving the government of the capital region, which includes Bogota and 20 surrounding municipalities, and replacing the entire city council with military generals. The president’s decision was a last-minute attempt to stave off an invasion of the city by the guerrillas of the FARC, who had said that they were marching on the capital to protest the president’s announcement that he was disbanding the nation’s national congress.

So far, the demonstrations have been largely peaceful. But on Tuesday, authorities in Antioquia, a violence-ridden province north of Bogota, ordered the evacuation of the town of Barbosa after a group of protesters allegedly began throwing stones at police and army troops. The protests have been fueled by mounting resentment over a sluggish economy, rising crime, and what many observers see as the government’s inability to address deep-seated inequality.

Colombia’s government announced on Thursday that it will deploy 7,000 troops to “ensure public order” in a bid to curb the violence that has swept the country in recent weeks. The announcement comes after a month of clashes between protesters and police, and deadly attacks that have seen leftist rebels blow up oil pipelines and attack police and soldiers with explosives. Note: Blog posts can have more than one intro paragraph, but these are the only two that will be graded. Note: Blog posts and Tweets are to be in the third person. Note: Blog posts and Tweets are to be in the present tense Note: Blog posts and Tweets must be at least 100 words in length. Note: Blog posts and. Read more about colombia protests and let us know what you think.BOGOTA, Colombia – Chairman Ivan Duquet Troops have been sent to Colombia to restore order after a month of anti-government protests that killed more than 25 people and crippled Latin America’s fourth-largest economy. About 7,000 troops are expected to be deployed Saturday and in the coming days in the southwestern province of Valle del Cauca and the city of Cali, where violence broke out Friday and killed at least five people, authorities said. The president announced Friday that his government would deploy a maximum of military personnel to support the police, who clash with protesters in Cali almost daily. Protesters threw rocks, Molotov cocktails and sometimes guns at police, who responded with tear gas and, in some cases, gunfire, as video footage of the clashes shows. This deployment will nearly triple our capacity across the county in less than 24 hours, Duque said. By Saturday, more than 1,140 soldiers had arrived in Cali and begun dismantling roadblocks erected by government opponents on major highways. The government plans to strengthen security forces in places where authorities have observed vandalism, violence and urban terrorism of low intensity, Duque said. Army and navy troops would be deployed to the country’s main Pacific port, Buenaventura, and to 10 of Colombia’s 32 provinces. The deployment comes after deadly clashes between protesters at roadblocks on Friday. Video footage went viral showing men in plain clothes shooting as police officers looked on and made no attempt to stop them. General Fernando Murillo, who heads the criminal investigation department, said police on the scene had had to arrest the gunmen and they were being investigated. Jose Miguel Vivanco, director of Human Rights Watch for the Americas, expressed concern about the deployment of troops. The orders issued do not include an explicit reference to the need to prioritize dialogue, avoid excessive use of force and respect human rights, Vivanco wrote on Twitter. He said the use could have irreparable consequences. word-image-14383

Clashes between protesters and police continued Friday in Cali, Colombia, where President Ivan Duque plans to send troops to restore order after a month of unrest.

Photo: Ernesto Guzmán Jr./Zuma Press Duque said the troops would be closely monitored and would respect the constitution. These forces act to protect civilians, receiving maximum support, but at the same time operating under maximum supervision, the president said. On Saturday, he traveled through Cali and met residents who complained about roadblocks that prevented them from going to work and supermarkets from replenishing their supplies. Among the hardest hit cities in the country are three towns near Cali, where protesters have set fire to buildings, including town halls and courts, in recent days. Television footage of the fire at the century-old courthouse in the city of Tuluá earlier this week stunned Colombians and judicial authorities, who said important files had been burned by the blaze. The 28th. Violence broke out in Colombia on April 4 after the Duque government proposed a tax reform that included an increase in sales tax. As the protests spread across the country, protesters from all walks of life demanded a wide range of public services and sweeping changes to the country’s economic model, even as Duque withdrew his proposed tax bill. Most of the participants in the blockades and demonstrations are young Colombians who have been severely affected by the high unemployment resulting from the closure of the Covid 19 factories. The coronavirus has killed more than 87,000 people in the country. Young people have no future under current conditions, said Sergio Briceño, a 20-year-old worker who spoke at a roadblock near the Colombian capital Bogotá. That’s why we’re fighting for the future here. The government negotiators met regularly with the strike committee, which consisted mainly of union leaders. In exchange for lifting the protests, they made more than 100 demands, including a ban on fracking, new restrictions on mining, abolition of some taxes, and restrictions on the privatization of state-owned enterprises. The list of demands has been reduced to a guaranteed basic income for more than half of the country’s 50 million inhabitants, a moratorium on mortgage repayments, a range of subsidies and free university education. The committee, which is negotiating with the government, wants the authorities to print money, use international reserves and temporarily halt payments on foreign debt to fund the wish list. -Jenny Carolina Gonzalez contributed to this article. Send an e-mail to Juan Forero at [email protected] Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8Colombia deployed about 3,000 troops to the capital of Bogota Tuesday after at least five people were killed in violent protests over a peace deal with rebels. The agreement between the government and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) ended 52 years of war and allowed the rebels to put down their weapons. But many Colombians are unhappy with the deal, especially those who live in areas where the FARC was the strongest. Some of the country’s conservative and rural areas were particularly upset.. Read more about cali, colombia noticias and let us know what you think.

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