Colombian ambassador to Spain denounces interest groups joining demonstrations in Colombia

Several weeks have passed since Colombia hit the news headlines with the fourth national strike since April 28th, which has seen massive mobilisations in the streets across the country. These protests resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians and law enforcement officers, and thousands more were injured. According to Colombia's Minister of Justice and Law, Wilson Ruiz, the conditions of the committee and the situation of the street protesters were affected by police involvement against the demonstrators.

At the last event of the Nueva Economía Forum, he stated that the authorities will clarify all violent incidents that occurred during the national strike protests. At the informative meeting organised by Nueva Economía Fórum together with the Colombian ambassador to Spain, Guillermo Plata, the Minister of Justice and Law assured that the government of Iván Duque will not allow "any act of injustice by both private individuals and the security forces".

The minister said that the Attorney General's Office is working to clarify the violent events that took place, and denounced the existence of "guerrillas, criminals, who want to burn down the courthouses to avoid being convicted". The minister announced that "in the next few hours" they will find "those responsible for the terrorist attacks". For his part, Colombia's ambassador to Spain, Guillermo Plata, admitted cases of police excesses "which must be investigated in depth and, if necessary, prosecuted".

Plata pointed out that "Some policemen have crossed red lines, as well as others on the opposite side, and the weight of the law must be brought to bear". In addition, the diplomat put the number of citizens killed at 45 at this stage, including 17 directly related to the protests, nine in verification and 19 unrelated to the protests.

Regarding the request posed by international observers from various bodies, Guillermo Plata pointed out that "Colombia has nothing to hide" but wants to "do the preliminary work before inviting other institutions", and put the number of investigations underway into police violence at 153, in which he intends to act "to the last consequences".

"These protests originate from a tax reform presented by the Colombian government, precisely to be able to confront what has been the COVID pandemic in Latin American countries", he explained. And Guillermo Pala pointed out that everything was going well as long as demonstrations were peaceful, but everything got out of hand when "other interest groups began to join in". He noted that violent groups are also linked here, groups outside the law, "be it guerrilla groups that are still fighting against the state, organised crime, criminal gangs, drug traffickers who also, as we say in Colombia, are looking to fish in troubled waters". 

"We have had more or less a month of protests, almost 4,000 acts of vandalism have resulted in the burning of 1,136 public transport vehicles, 853 banking institutions have been looted or analysed, 364 businesses, pharmacies, shops, shops, warehouses have been looted," he added.

He indicated that last year GDP fell by 6.8% and unemployment rose by almost 17%. In addition, 3.6 billion people who have managed to pass the middle class saw a return to poverty. So it has had a very important impact, of course. And that is what leads the country to consider the need for reform.

"The government is willing to engage in dialogue to ensure that the protests subside and, of course, the violent protests disappear," he added, referring to the search for fundamental solutions to problems of concern to Colombians. "That is undeniable, the president has given this instruction. There are some dialogue tables working on the issue. Of course, this is not easy".

He noted it is not simple because, as we know, "magic wands and magic solutions do not exist". He pointed out that "if we want to fund the requests made by the strike committee, for example, with regard to an equivalent solidarity income, a minimum wage over time, income or subsidy to SMEs, these are all things that have to be funded, that we have to find out where they come from and, of course, where the funds come from". 

Pala added that this was the purpose of the tax reform originally and that "there is a willingness to do things. But it must be understood that everything that is done must have or has in itself an implicit cost," he said.  

The Colombian Minister of Justice and Law pointed out that the acts of vandalism referred to have an administrative impact of ordinary justice and pointed out that first of all, "the right to protest in the light of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 must be taken into account. The right to public assembly and demonstration is enshrined in Article 37 of this Constitution, which clearly states that marches must be peaceful and, thankfully, non-violent. In other words, what is not allowed is vandalism.  "There have been more than 500 deaths per day with regard to COVID-19, why is this happening? Precisely because of the irresponsibility of all the demonstrators" due to the fact that they do not respect security measures and do not maintain social distancing, he points out.

The interview did not end without alluding to the efforts of the Colombian government by Iván Duque, who, according to Ruiz, "always makes enormous efforts to demonstrate the prosperity of our country"; he stated that the "government and the Ministry of Finance are designing strategies for the economic recovery of the country, so that we will try to obtain the necessary resources to begin to rebuild our Justice Fund".