RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A new day of protests against the government’s tax reform took place this Friday, April 30, in Cali, Colombia’s third largest city, where clashes with police in some neighborhoods left at least one dead.
Thousands of people gathered for the third consecutive day in the streets of this city in the southwest of the country with Colombian flags and a festive atmosphere where there were even fireworks, shouting “This is Cali”.
However, there were moments of tension in some neighborhoods, with tear gas shots and police ammunition to break up disturbances.
The director of the Colombian Police, General Jorge Luis Vargas, explained to the press that they are verifying the information of one possible dead and one wounded in the city, but that “in the face of these reports circulating in social networks (which speak of up to seven dead), so far we have not found concrete information”.
“All the procedures, of accompaniment and protection to the public and peaceful demonstration these days in Colombia, have been carried out following the norms and protocols of human rights and laws”, said General Vargas.
The NGO Temblores, which is dedicated to the care and registration of victims of police violence, said that they have reports of five deaths today in Cali that they are verifying, as it is “difficult to triangulate moment because the situation is very complex”.
For his part, the mayor of Cali, Jorge Ivan Ospina, said tonight at a press conference that only one death by firearm has been confirmed in this city, capital of the department of Valle del Cauca, despite reports from human rights groups of several deaths.
DIFFICULT TIMES
Hours earlier, Mayor Ospina assured journalists that the city “had lived difficult moments in the last 48 hours”, while saying that those who protest peacefully will have all guarantees.
“For those who mobilize, they have the support, but for those who loot, there is the authority of the State,” he said.
Late at night in Cali, pots, and pans were banging against the tax reform of the Colombian president, Iván Duque, a situation repeated in some sectors of Bogotá, such as Suba, one of the largest parts of the Colombian capital.
In Bogotá, a group of people set fire to the Modelia public transport service station, located on El Dorado Avenue, which leads to the airport, as denounced by Transmilenio.
This Friday’s day had many fewer demonstrators than the protests of the two previous days, especially in Bogotá and Medellin, where there were sit-ins and outbreaks of violence.
On the other hand, General Vargas confirmed that the Judicial Police Section (Sijín) commander of Soacha, Captain Jesús Alberto Solano, died today after being stabbed several times when he tried to prevent the looting of a store in that town near Bogotá.
President Duque ordered today the Ministry of Finance to build together with Congress a new text of the controversial tax reform to placate the protests.
The Government assures that it needs to close the gap created by the coronavirus pandemic in the State’s finances. With the tax reform, it expects to collect 23.4 trillion pesos (about 6.3 billion US dollars).
During the three days of protests, tens of thousands of people throughout the country have expressed their rejection of the Government’s initiative because they consider that it will affect even more poor people, already the most affected by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the middle class.
Source: efe