{"id":11155,"date":"2021-05-07T15:41:29","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T15:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lavozlit.com\/?p=11155"},"modified":"2021-05-07T15:41:29","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T15:41:29","slug":"colombia-stop-the-criminal-repression-of-the-duque-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/2021\/05\/07\/colombia-stop-the-criminal-repression-of-the-duque-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombia | Stop the Criminal Repression of the Duque Government!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victory to the Colombian Working Class!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>
\nStop the Criminal Repression of the Duque Government!
\n<\/b>
\nAt the highest peak of the Covid 19 pandemic, Ivan Duque\u2019s government introduced a tax overhaul bill that would raise the value added tax (IVA) on basic goods and public utilities, including eggs, coffee, and milk, while maintaining the country\u2019s bloated military budget and reducing the corporate income tax. This deeply regressive legislation adds to a long list of grievances that include four million unemployed (nearly 10 percent of the population), 42%<\/a> <\/span>of the population in poverty, more than half of the labor force in the informal sector, over 72,000 official covid deaths, a lack of vaccines, slow and incompetent management of the pandemic, and a wave of paramilitary violence that has killed hundreds of social movement leaders.
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\nIn response to the tax overhaul bill, labor federations called for a day of protest on April 28, which turned out hundreds of thousands of people to the streets and quickly became an indefinite and militant mass mobilization of workers, students, the unemployed, peasants, and large layers of the Colombian middle class. The Duque government responded with an all-out campaign of state terror and repression that, as of May 6, has <\/b>resulted<\/b><\/a><\/span> in 37 deaths, 234 injured, 934 arbitrary detentions, 341 violent attacks on peaceful protests, 26 victims of intentional eye injuries, and at least 11 victims of sexual violence<\/b>. After Duque ordered the militarization of Cali, Bogot\u00e1, and other cities, members of the Colombian army and the Mobile Anti Riot Squad of the national police (ESMAD) have been documented entering working class neighborhoods to persecute, torture, and shoot live ammunition at unarmed civilians.
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\nContrary to Duque\u2019s claims that the regressive tax overhaul is necessary to fix the country\u2019s fiscal crisis, 22% of the national budget<\/b><\/a><\/span> goes toward the country\u2019s staggering debt, a third of which is illegitimate foreign debt owed to multilateral institutions controlled by rich countries, like the World Bank and the IMF<\/b>. Roughly 11% of the 2021 national budget is earmarked to pay only interests on public debt. Moreover, while the Duque regime tries to further immiserate the working people of Colombia, the military budget continues to grow and multinational mining corporations, large national companies, and large landowners pay marginal tax rates\u2014a structural problem that was aggravated by Duque\u2019s regressive tax reforms of 2018 and 2019.
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\nThe imperialist government of the United States and US capital in general are directly implicated in the suffering of the Colombian people through the criminal war on drugs<\/a><\/span>; US influence over multilateral institutions that are choking the country with debt while promoting neoliberal austerity; the \u201cdumping\u201d of heavily-subsidized agricultural and industrial goods that displace local farmers and jobs through the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement; the extortive contracts<\/a><\/span> of corporations like Pfizer that hold patents for desperately needed vaccines; and the funding and training of Colombian military and police forces, which have historically been involved in major human rights abuses and are brutally repressing protesters today. In fact, for its 2021 budget, the US has appropriated $461.4 million for aid to Colombia<\/a><\/span>, primarily for \u201ccounter-narcotics\u201d and \u201ccounter-terrorism\u201d efforts.
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\nDespite the extreme level of state repression and the temporary withdrawal of the tax reform bill (protestors know that the government is simply repackaging and rebranding the tax overhaul), the Colombian working class remains in the streets. In a massive, dignified display of militancy, the\u00a0 people of Colombia are challenging the neoliberal order and showing workers around the world that our power to change society lies in our self-organization and mobilization.\u00a0The Revolutionary Socialist Network and the allied organizations below stand in solidarity with the struggle of the Colombian people and demand the following:\u00a0<\/b>
\n <\/p>\n