Talkin' 'Tina - Colombia Fights the Plan w/ Santi

This Wreckage

Sean KB and AP Andy

Arts, Music

4.2 • 970 Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2021

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For this episode of our side project on Latin American history and politics, we talk to a Human Rights lawyer from the Colombian movement Congreso del Pueblos about the recent uprising against far-right President Ivan Duque's pandemic austerity measures, and the brutal repression that followed.

Earlier this year Duque proposed a new tax on consumer goods, a regressive tax disproportionately effecting the poor population already struggling against booming unemployment. A series of nationwide strikes against the tax and austerity called for late April turned out to be far more massive than anyone had predicted, overcoming some of the deep divisions between the popular movements and Duque's base. But the dozens of deaths, disappearances, countless beatings and sexual assaults that followed have only galvanized the struggle further--and our guest has concluded that the State has "already lost."

Special thanks to Projet Accompagnement Solidarité Colombie

Relevant reading:

https://crimethinc.com/2020/09/11/uprising-in-colombia-an-example-of-what-is-to-come-a-report-and-interview-on-the-background-of-the-revolt

Song: Dead Hero - Dime quevas hacer?

Previous episodes of Talkin' 'Tina on Peru, Brazil, and Argentina are available for our Patreon subscribers

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Talk and Tina, the Antifada Side Project about the history and contemporary politics
0:15.3	of Latin America.
0:16.3	Today we're talking Colombia, not the Ivy League University whose halls Jamie Peck once
0:22.3	graced, nor the stylish sportswear brand, but the South
0:26.5	American nation famous for its ethnic and biodiversity, folk music, and long history of brutal peris state repression.
0:35.0	For the last several years Columbia has engaged in a so-called peace process
0:40.0	between the military and its largest guerrilla group.
0:43.0	But many believe the FARC's transition to civic life
0:47.0	has only opened the doors to neoliberal expansion,
0:50.0	especially into indigenous regions,
0:52.0	along with paramilitary assaults on social movement activists.
0:57.2	According to the Institute for Studies in Development and Peace, there has been
1:01.1	124 massacres between 2020 and 2021 involving 300 victims
1:07.5	with more than 1,000 activists murdered since the Accords. These atrocities under the regime of
1:14.6	far-right President Ivan Duque are getting fresh attention over the past year as
1:19.3	the economic effects of the pandemic have affected already one of South America's poorest
1:24.4	countries. Earlier this year, Duque proposed a new tax on consumer goods, which of course is a
1:30.4	regressive tax, disproportionately affecting the poor population already
1:34.7	struggling against booming unemployment. A series of nationwide strikes
1:38.6	against the tax and austerity called for late April turned out to be far more massive than anyone had predicted,
1:45.0	leading Duque to sick his riot police, the SMAD, on the population,
1:50.0	leading to dozens of deaths, disappearances, countless beatings, and sexual assaults.
	...

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