Colombia in crisis: the young faces of discontent that do not decline after 19 days of protests

There are 19 days of protests in Colombia and the streets keep burning. There are massive demonstrations against the government and hurt by the repression. At the forefront is a youth diagnosed with sadness, with broken trust in institutions and impoverished by the pandemic.

The protests, which made the government desist from the idea of ​​raising taxes, the trigger for the crisis, uncovered an even deeper discontent in this country of 50 million inhabitants. An unrest fueled by the reaction of the police forces.

Amid multiple complaints about abuses, at least 42 people have died since April 28 (one in uniform and 41 civilians), according to the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office. There are more than 1,600 injured among protesters and uniformed.

The pandemic, which plunged 42.5% of the population into poverty, gravitates on this crisis. Almost a third of Colombians (27.7%) between the ages of 14 and 28 neither study nor work, according to the state statistics body. The young people ask not to be assassinated and a more solidary State.

In the midst of the mobilizations, the firm Cifras and Conceptos conducted a survey among young people that reveals their distrust in institutions such as the presidency, the police and the military. Their concerns are unemployment, poverty, corruption, insecurity, inequality and access to university and health.

“Sadness is today the feeling that occupies the first place with 33%. It is the harshest message in this entire poll. In its astonishing brevity it seems to condense a huge aggregate of problems, frustrations and anxieties”, said César Caballero, manager of the pollster.

The study, with a margin of error of 3.7%, analyzed 2,556 surveys among people aged 18 to 32 living in 13 cities.

Here are some portraits of the youth protesting in Colombia.

Juan Esteban Murillo, 21, university student, dancer and youth leader, poses with a Colombian flag during an anti-government protest in Medellín. (Photo by JOAQUIN SARMIENTO / AFP). (JOAQUIN SARMIENTO /)

Afro clamor

In 2019 he made his political debut in the mobilizations against the government of Iván Duque. Almost two years later Juan Esteban Murillo, a Physical Education student with a wool cap and the Colombian flag on his back, is back on the streets of Medellín (northwest) demanding to be heard, megaphone in hand.

“The Afro-descendant population here in Colombia comes with a continuous struggle with racism.” Juan Esteban comes forward with that first claim. It also denounces the stigma and official violence against blacks, and the “low quality” of the public university, which, although free, does not seem sufficient to ensure a better future.

Juan Esteban Murillo uses a megaphone during an anti-government protest in Medellín.

He also tells that “sadly” many like him have to choose “between the passage or the bread”; between going to college or eating, because students don’t have free transportation. “The biggest problem young people have here in the city is unemployment; the lack of opportunities ”, he maintains.

Juan Esteban, aged 21, also mistrusts the public force for their “attacks” on peaceful marches and resents it more when they subject him to “arbitrary searches” because of his skin color. “I felt that they had to protect us. Now I simply feel that the (protesters with) hoods who go out to march protect us more than the police themselves”.

Former guerrilla from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Alexa Rochi, 30, participates in a protest against the government of Colombian President Iván Duque in Bogotá.

Women “without fear”

“I am still a rebel with a cause. I no longer have a rifle, but I have this machine,” says the ex-guerrilla Alexa Rochi in Bogotá and shows his camera.

Of his 30 years, she spent more than a decade in the ranks of the FARC, when it was the most powerful rebel organization in America. In the jungle she met photography.

Since signing peace in 2016, she put aside the war registry, became a feminist and works with the Senate and a women’s group. “Education here is a business, health is a business,” she denounces.

It cries out for a new country “where thinking differently does not cost your life”, women live “without fear” and no more ex-combatants fall. “At this point, just five years after the signing of that agreement, there are 272 peace signatories assassinated.”

Messy hair, sunglasses and “piercing” in the left eyebrow, is in the “front line” of protest also to repudiate a policeman who “runs over” and “rapes”. The Ombudsman’s Office received 16 complaints of sexual assault by soldiers in the demonstrations.

Indigenous guard Abner Bisus, 27, participates in a protest against the government of Colombian President Iván Duque in Cali.

Indigenous disappointment

Staff held high, Abner Mauricio Bisus sings “resistance” in the middle of a demonstration in Cali (southwest). He is 27 years old, he is an authority in his town and part of the indigenous guard that protects the original communities.

“I am protesting against the violence that has increased especially in indigenous territories,” laments the young man who wears his cap with the viscera back and wears a green-red scarf tied around his neck.

Instead of the defunct FARC “other armed actors have arrived who claim to be revolutionaries, who claim to be from the left, but who ultimately respond only to drug trafficking interests,” he explains.

Indigenous people represent 4.4% of Colombians. The crisis has uncovered classism and hidden racism in cities like Cali, where other civilians have been attacked with firearms.

“The government has failed me, it has been more aware of the elite,” he deplores.