THREAD: On ongoing protests in Colombia. After a some confusion on my part and a bit of a late start , I'm in Plaza Bolívar, where marchers are now rolling in
Much bigger crowd than I thought this morning, tho far from biggest so far. A walkthrough👇 #ParoNacional8M
Some updates while we wait to see how crowds look. Cali continues in strike, with many highways partially blocked and marches near the main point of protests Puerto resistencia
The Indigenous guard from the Minga, a communal indigenous movement composed of various communities from Cauca, have given an armed plainclothes polieman who they caught trying to infiltrate protests, back to authorities
I imagine he is being yelled at right now for creating a rather embarrassing situation for authorities 🤭
The Minga is a fascinating and recurring movement. Cauca is the deadliest region of Colombia and the indigenous guard are their highly respected unarmed security force. I had the honor of traveling with them for four days last year. More on that here 👇 thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2020/10/2…
I'm gonna head to La Hoja I think. Hear there's some movement there
Current scene at a women's march near la Hoja. Protesters briefly blocked one lane on the highway but are turning right into a residential area. Last time I was at one of these I went hope with a healthy dose of purple glitter 💜
Indepaz reports 379 people missing since protests began. This protester holds a sign asking where they are
And we're hit w torrential downpour as has been the case for nearly every afternoon since protests started. I'm going to take advantage of the pause to finish some edits on a piece in process. I hear there's a Bonfire ceremony at Heroes tonight. Thread paused but not over!
And we're back! At monumento de los Héroes, where night protests are ongoing
Colombian Spiderman not having it
Current mood
I'm told this was a cleansing ceremony. Protesters approached me quick when they saw the press badge. They expressed frustration w how national media has covered them. Were glad I wasn't
When I say approached me quickly, I don't mean out of a desire to talk. To be transparent they wanted to make sure I didn't work for Caracol
The art just keeps getting better. You may have noticed I really like street protest art
Caricatures: left a protesters impression of ex president Uribe. Right: Current president Duque #protestArt
I'm gonna call it though. One observation from today: when there's no police brutality, there's less problems. Even despite major unions taking the day off a lot of grassroots events popped up. For the moment, the momentum seems to be w protesters. (Cont)
These things change fast tho and I'm not making any concrete predictions. I'm also exhausted. 11 days of little sleep, lots of walking, lots of gas and lots of violence. Today was a nice break. And tomorrow will be a better one. Thanks as always if you got this far. ❤️🇨🇴 /END
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THREAD: I've been covering big protests movements in Latin America a little over three years, and there are a few things that ALWAYS happen in regards to State claims about what's going on. I'd like to break down a few because it's timely to current Colombian protests:
1) THIS IS FUNDED BY [insert external enemy]!!!
States do not like the idea that movements against them can arise organically or ppl have agency. Even more than just PR (though it's that too) those in power prefer to blame their failings on invisible nefarious outsiders
I saw this in Venezuela (CIA)
Ecuador in 2019 (People couldn't believe indigenous were capable enough to shut down the country, so...Maduro and Correa)
Colombia in 2019 (Also Maduro)
Somehow in each of these events a faraway power convinced 100s of 1000s to take to the streets?
Indepaz publishes witness testimony that supports claims by indigenous protesters that police chose not to intervene during attack on Minga protesters in Cali
Details still emerging, but if counter protesters take away from this incident the idea that shooting Minga members has the tacit support of police, this could get very ugly very fast
A video gained high circulation yesterday that some people said was evidence the Minga were armed. The only evidence the video presented was a woman screaming "They're armed." All investigations have to this point, reported that was not the case
A woman gave her live aerobics class in Myanmar without knowing about the ongoing coupe. Behind her, military vehicles arrive to seize the Parliament building
Also the music is amazing. I like about halfway thru as she dances to a swarm of military vehicles driving off to overthrow the gov into the background
Looks like she has done very similar videos in the past at the same location
All the politicos jockeying while loosely playing w the truth ahead of an upcoming election is normal- but when the carelessness involves COVID it's a lot less harmless
Just to be clear- the Duquee administrations rollout (or non rollout rather) has been been HORRIFIC and even included lies to the public, but the claims Petro is making here are not even supported by the article he is tweeting
With everyone talking about Wall Street, it seems like a good moment to talk about the Occupy Wall Street movement, which happened 10 years ago this year! I spent weeks there, and it was incredibly instructive both in State violence in the US and how movements fall apart 🧵
First, quick refresher. In 2011, securities traders nearly burned down the global economy. The response of the US gov to the crisis was the "too big to fail" bailouts. This pissed off a lot of ppl who felt they were being rewarded for predatory behavior while the poor suffered
I lived in Brooklyn and was interested in protests generally (always have been!). So when Adbusters (love that org) and some other groups announced a protest in Zuccoti Park, I went down to check it out and brought along a case of water to donate