Bleak futures fuel widespread protests by young Colombians

Thousands of young people and college students have been at forefront of Colombia's antigovernment protests for more than two weeks, armed with improvised shields me from garb cans and umbrellas.

y have taken brunt of tear gas and gunshots from security forces, and dozens have paid for it with ir lives.

young men and women have become voices for Colombians fed up with a government y say has mismand coronavirus pandemic and crushed hopes of a better future.

“To a large extent, we found that re was fear of death. Sometimes it is only thing that remains when system is starving us and re are opportunities,” said Yonny Rojas, a 36-year-old law student who also runs soup kitchens in one of poorest areas of Cali, city where government response has been especially violent.

students didn't begin demonstrations, which erupted on April 28 when unions called people into streets after President Iván Duque's government tried to raise taxes on public services, fuel, ws and pensions, effectively squeezing middle class. That protest drew tens of thousands of people across South American nation.

ministration withdrew proposal four days later, but it was t eugh to quell discontent that h simmered during pandemic. Anger grew with reports of police brutality, deaths and disappearances of protesters.

Despite more than a half century of nearly constant civil conflict between government and leftist rebels, Colombia is among wealthier nations in region, with one of highest levels of university education in Latin America.

But it is plagued by profound inequality and violence, by powerful drug trafficking organizations and paramilitary groups blamed for displacing hundreds of thousands of people from ir lands, and by murders of social and labor activists at a scale unseen elsewhere in hemisphere.

Hopes that a 2016 peace deal with largest rebel group would le to a flowering of opportunities h been frustrated even before pandemic hit.

Duque tried to calm protests by meeting with young demonstrators in Cali and Bogota, capital, promising subsidies for low-income students at public universities. But students leers rejected offer, complaining it would t apply to all students and repeated a pledge that was only partly fulfilled following 2019 protests.

protests continued this weekend.

Human rights groups, including U.N.'s rights body, have accused government security forces — long accustomed to confronting suspected guerrillas and drug gangs — of excessive use of force against protesters.

government said it has confirmed only 14 deaths directly tied to protests, but Human Rights Watch said it has received “credible” reports of 48 deaths — most between s of 13 to 34.

government accuses protesters of vandalizing properties, looting and setting up roblocks that have caused food shorts, prevented vaccine deliveries and blocked ambulances. Officials have also accused protesters of trying to burn alive 10 police officers in Bogota.

Ministry of Defense has reported arrests of nearly 700 people as well as seizure of 520 firearms and 14,000 sharp weapons.

Paloma Valencia, a pro-Duque senator, equated roblocks to “kidnappings of Colombian society with a social protest.”

“We understand that our constitutional obligation is also to protect those who participate in protests, in mobilizations, if y are peaceful, but it is also to combat vandalism and violence when it emerges, and avoid that y affect rights of ors,” Defense Minister Diego Mola told reporters last week.

Young people were also heavily involved in protests in 2018 and 2019 against or proposed government reforms. But anger has spre throughout nation as people lost jobs, friends and relatives to a pandemic that has claimed at least 80,250 lives across country. Many have given up hopes of being able to afford to return to colleges when y reopen.

“Thousands of young people have taken streets across Colombia because y feel y have future. y see government institutions as distant entities that are t willing to listen to m,” José Miguel Vivanco, Human Rights Watch's director for Americas, said in a statement. “While some of m have engd in violence, police officers have arbitrarily dispersed peaceful protests and responded with excessive, often brutal, force to violent protesters.”

Colombia's security forces have spent deces fighting rebels — and have been often accused of cooperation with right-wing paramilitaries and of killing incent civilians to boost “rebel” body counts.

“Struggles to make Colombia more democratic and equitable are often met with murderous force, wher by government forces, particularly police in 2021, and in 2019, or sometimes what y called paramilitary forces that are kind of loosely allied in showy ways with usually armed forces, or police or both,” said Forrest Hylton, a professor of history and politics at Universid Nacional de Colombia-Medellín. “So anybody who stands up for ir rights in Colombia is often risking his or her life."

government also has alleged that rebel factions that rejected 2016 peace deal, along with drug traffickers, have infiltrated protests.

“It’s a continuation of a long history of state repression of popular protests, and stigmatizing protesters," said Lesley Gill, a Vanderbilt University professor focused on cultural anthropology, political violence and human rights.

“ situation in Cali is so s that today, unfortunately, young people in less favored communities are more likely to be linked to a criminal gang than to a cultural group,” said Andrés Felipe González, a 29-year-old communications student and community leer in an impoverished neighborhood in Cali. “Colombia is in a very precarious situation and in all social classes."