Peter Dexter
Well-known member
For more than a month now we have been living with a national strike or "paro" in Colombia. The initial motivation for the strike was a proposed economic reform that would have hit a large portion of the population very hard by adding tax to basic food items not previously taxed. This is a country where approximately 64% of the population earns the "salario minimo" or minimum salary equivalent to.$252.00 US a month. In addition the plan was to impose an income tax on the middle class earning approximately $990.00 US. Currently the threshold before income tax must be paid is considerably higher. All of this was to land on the shoulders of Colombians at a time when there was already huge economic loss across the board from the covid crisis. Not the most propicios timing. The reaction has been fierce and the strike continues unabated despite the president having caved in and cancelled the proposed reform as many other issues have been raised by the strikers. While there have been many peaceful marches in protest there has also been considerable violence and vandalism leading to a state of near chaos in the city of Cali. Public transportation buses have been burned as well as police stations and large chain grocery stores have been looted and set ablaze as well as some banks. In addition protesters have set up barricades at all the entry points to the city causing profound shortages of food and medical supplies. At one point my own road was blocked for a week until a contingent of police and army came and cleared the blockade and arrested some who were manning it. It has come to light that FARC guerrilla in cahoots with narco traffickers are bankrolling the violence and vandalism and paying the "protesters" manning the barricades. The large department stores are now barricading their entrances as are the gas stations. It is ongoing with no end yet in sight.
My road a couple of weeks ago:
A gas station:
A department store:
Another department store:
My road a couple of weeks ago:
A gas station:
A department store:
Another department store:
