Indigenous leaders in Colombia demand meeting with President Iván Duque. (Photo: AP)

Bogota, October 22 (RHC)-- In Colombia, thousands of trade unionists, teachers and students joined an Indigenous-led national strike Wednesday demanding an end to the killings of social movement leaders and to police violence. 

Colombia’s right-wing President Iván Duque has refused protesters’ demands that he meet publicly with protest leaders, saying without evidence that they’ve been infiltrated by “terrorists.” 

One organizer of the protests, Harold Arias, told reporters: “We’re scared of going back to our territories without getting in dialogue with the president, because there is the uncertainty that Indigenous leaders are being murdered by a national government that does not want to respect our rights.”