Colombia’s 2021 National Strike
After more than a year of social unrest in Colombia, the
eruption of a national strike on 28 April 2021 has led to outbreaks of violence among demonstrators, police
and criminal actors. This comes after decades of social,
political and economic turmoil in the country, which is manifest in high unemployment, rising inequality and
high criminal activity in Colombia’s major cities.
These patterns were only exacerbated by the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 and subsequent reports of government corruption, driving citizens to the streets in 2021. Since the strike began, violent conflict has resulted in an estimated 74 deaths, 111 cases of missing persons, and numerous reports of police brutality, eliciting calls from civil society and the international community to respect human rights. Although much of the focus to date has been on the role of the government in quelling the violence, reporting, and analysis of the strike have largely overlooked the role of organized crime in the protest action and the subsequent economic crisis.
For months, people across Colombia gathered for demonstrations to voice their anger over a tax-reform proposal and a range of other issues, including the government's handling of unemployment, inequality, corruption, and the pandemic.
For many protesters in the streets, the national strike raised hopes that change was possible. But after years of disillusionment with politicians and wayward protest leaders, groups of outraged citizens are taking it upon themselves to build change from the ground up.
These protests fizzled out by mid-July, but in their wake, a countless number of spontaneous gatherings have popped up in cities and rural towns alike. In these spaces, locals seek dialogue and collective action to solve the systemic poverty and inequality plaguing the country.
Students, unionists, indigenous and Afro-Colombian activists came out in droves, but many protesters were ordinary citizens without any affiliation to an organized movement.
