Bogota, February 10 (RHC)-- The National Strike Committee (CNP) of Colombia and the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) called this Wednesday for a new day of peaceful mobilizations to take place on March 3, 2022, against the policies of the government of Iván Duque.
These groups call for a great national protest "in view of the seriousness of the economic, political and social facts that our country is experiencing, in the face of which there are systematic threats and blackmail, stigmatization, murder of social and union leaders and in view of the serious facts of scarcity that are sponsored and promoted by the national government."
This government, emphasized the Committee, has been authorizing increases in public utilities of more than 10 percent, also in gasoline of close to 11 percent and interest rates of close to 28 percent.
Another argument for the strike is based on the government's inability to keep the price of the dollar stable, which affects consumption and food imports, which amount to 14 million tons of imports.
Regarding the commemoration of International Women's Day on March 8, as a day of struggle, the Committee proposes seminars and workshops to vindicate the rights of Colombian women.
On March 13, the Colombian legislative elections will be held, and the organizations calling for the new strike propose to support the candidacies of the Historical Pact and the Coalition of Hope, which they allege are the only forces that have accompanied them since the social outbreak.
For April 28, on the first anniversary of the outbreak, the National Strike Committee (CNP) of Colombia and the Central Unitary Workers' Union (CUT) invited the Colombian people to mobilize peacefully to vindicate the date.
Several Colombian organizations denounced police violence during the National Strike. The Temblores platform, which monitored the mobilization days, estimated that the Colombian social outburst left a balance of 5048 cases of police violence. They also denounced the lack of guarantees to exercise the work of the press in Colombia, where in 2021 the platform Grita registered 176 cases of police violence against journalists and reporters, where 157 were reported to have occurred in scenarios of social protest.
The UN Office for Human Rights reported in mid-December that they verified 46 cases of deaths during social protests in 2021. The organization's representative for Colombia, Juliette de Rivero indicated that of the total number of deaths, at least 44 were civilians and two were police officers.
"In at least 28 of those cases the alleged perpetrators are part of the security forces and 10 were individuals in civilian clothes," said de Rivero.
