This will be the route of the National Strike marches on November 21

This Saturday, November 21, Bogotá will experience a new day of unemployment, as several mobilizations are being prepared that coincide with the first year of the civic strike that altered the order of Bogotá.

The streets of Bogotá await hundreds of protesters who will be parading from 8:00 in the morning.

The marches of the Externado, Los Andes, Libe Distrital and Javeriana students will take the seventh race and will go through 45th street and then 30th street until they reach the National University.

For their part, the students of the Central University, Sergio Arboleda and the Pedagogical University will also arrive at the National University to join the demonstrations.

After the meeting at the Nacional, a specific mobilization will go to the Plaza Fundacional de Bosa Centro. Right there will be the protesters of the Pedagogical University, which will be concentrated in that point in the south of the capital.

The Secretary of Government, Luis Ernesto Gómez, referred to the demonstrations and assured that what will be experienced this weekend are different sit-ins.

“Saplings in squares, sit-ins in universities that will surely take place in a peaceful manner”Gomez said.

On November 23 there will also be a candlelight in memory of Dilan Cruz, the young man who was allegedly murdered by a member of Esmad. The tribute will be held on 19th street with fourth race at 2:00 pm

On Wednesday November 25 there will be a mobilization feminist during the Day of Non-Violence against Women.

Hundreds of people took to the streets last Thursday to demand a change of course from the government of Iván Duque, a year after the massive protests against him that will mark a milestone in the country.

Adherence was lower than in previous calls and the rain scared off protesters in Bogotá, the epicenter of the mobilizations. In the other cities, participation was low.

Trade unionists, students, teachers, doctors, ex-FARC guerrillas and government opponents marched under colorful slogans and protected with masks amid the pandemic.

In the capital there were peaceful concentrations in different points and people then walked towards the central Plaza de Bolívar, next to the presidential headquarters.

We want “(Duque) to attend to the indigenous, the peasants, the working-class sectors of the country, to comply with the pacts signed with the students (…) that the minimum requests be met!” , a 65-year-old educator, who wore a poncho with the Colombian flag.

The claims range from rejection of the upsurge in violence in remote areas of the country to criticism of the conservative government’s policies. A group of health workers advanced towards the center of the capital with cardboard in the shape of a coffin hung around their necks.

“We are under forms of illegal contracting, outsourced, precarious (…) we do not have biosecurity and protection (…) we continue to buy it out of pocket”, lamented the psychiatrist Carolina Corcho, 36 years old.

Massive anti-government protests began in November 2019 with rivers of people mobilizing daily in the biggest popular challenge a Colombian government has faced since the 1970s.

President Duque, in power since 2018, endures popular discontent as he deals with the deterioration of the economy, the management of the pandemic and the worst attack by armed groups since the signing of the peace agreement in 2016 with the former FARC guerrilla .

According to the independent observatory Indepaz, 74 massacres have been registered so far in 2020 due to the resurgence of violence. In addition, 241 ex-combatants and signatories of the historic pact have been assassinated in the last four years.

Experts point out to the Colombian State for not having taken control of the territories left by the rebels, which facilitated the strengthening of new organizations that dispute the coca business.

“We come to march for the defense of life, for the defense of social leaders and for the massacres to cease in our country and not remain in impunity”Uriel Patiño, 49, claimed.

Demonstrations have subsided with the pandemic, since the first case of covid-19 was detected in March, but people returned to the streets in September after the murder of a man by police officers that unleashed bloody mobilizations against police brutality.

With 50 million inhabitants, Colombia is the fifth country in the region with the highest number of deaths (34,563) from coronavirus and the third with the most infections (1,218,003).

In addition, containment measures ordered by the government to prevent the spread of the virus led the country to the first recession in two decades, with urban unemployment reaching 18.3%.

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