AFP

Thousands of protesters in Colombia against the left-wing government of Petro

Thousands of people marched in Colombia’s main cities on Monday against measures such as higher taxes on the wealthy and land reform proposed by leftist President Gustavo Petro, who took office last month. In Bogotá, protesters mobilized in the streets of the center and concentrated in the Plaza de Bolívar, next to the presidential headquarters, under the slogan “Petro out!” “He promised a change of general policy (but) he surrounded himself with corrupt politicians. It’s cheating,” Orlando Novoa, 60, the boss of a construction company, told AFP. of about thirty employees, who demonstrated in the capital. Petro devino el primer mandatario izquierdista de la historia de Colombia al conquistar a poco más de la mitad del electorado con una batería de reformas that claims to increase the impuestos a los ricos, to hamper the oil exploration and to leave our fertile lands between campesinos “sin tierra”, among others. To carry out these initiatives, he formed a majority legislative coalition with the support of several traditional parties. “The country needs a manager, Petro is a politician,” said Cristóbal Osorio, a 16-year-old student in Bogotá. In the capital, dozens of young people who rallied in defense of the president exchanged insults and jostling with their opponents, forcing the intervention of city hall officials, confirmed an AFP photographer. With mixed clamor, the demonstrations took to the streets of Cali (southwest), Bucaramanga (northeast) and Medellín (northwest), where a team of journalists from the state broadcaster Telemedellín was attacked by demonstrators and had to abandon the cover, according to the NGO Fundación for the Freedom of the Press (FLIP). – ‘Respect for private property’ – Petro’s rise to power has encouraged natives and other peasants to forcibly occupy dozens of properties, in what promises to be one of the leftist government’s first social conflicts unprecedented, which repelled these invasions. Hundreds of people rallied in Cali dressed in white and carrying signs reading “Respect for private property” or “(Petro) encourages crime rather than production”. The president was active for 12 years in the M-19, a nationalist guerrilla of urban origin which signed peace in 1990. “It is a disgrace to have a president who was a guerrilla (…) I am outraged !”, he lamented in Bogotá Manuela Hernández (62), owner of a swimsuit company. Congress is debating a tax reform bill presented by the government which aspires to levy more taxes on the upper classes to finance their social programs against poverty and inequality with new resources. His predecessor, the right-wing Iván Duque (2018-2022), faced massive protests in 2019, 2020 and 2021, led by young people and vulnerable sectors. Las más sangrientas ocurrieron el año pasado, cuando el entonces presidente intentó gravar a la clase media para hacer frente a los estragos de la pandemia, lo que desató violentas manifestaciones que prolongieron por dos meses y dejaron 46 muertos, entre civiles y policías, según UN. rbe/lv/jss/das/atm