Live Thread🧵 of today's protests in Bogota #ParoNacional9J I'm near the airport at the scene where the Misak were gassed this morning near a statue of Christopher Columbus. Rain continues
ESMAD looks cute cuddling
Tactical community aesthetic enhancement on the two statues in the square, which have been splattered w red paint
Left: Colombia, "the origin of genocide"
Right: Spanish queen Isabella "No to colonialism"
Misak people talking to press (in Spanish)
Summary: (paraphrased) the story of colonization here in Colombia has been turned into a hero's take normalized by society. For the Misak, it is a story of blood and repression, much like the protests
Queen Isabella with her Imperial guard
Ladycop
My god she's so young
Things pretty calm here now. A lot of press present. I'm gonna head over to the main marches organized by the strike committee. Back with ya soon!
"I am Minga. I am Antifa"
By the way, for those not in Bogotá, it has been *dumping* rain all day. Surely the police are relieved about that
My Venezuelan roomates are convinced the Colombian government seeds the clouds before protest days. Hahaha
I dont believe that, but it does seem to almost always rain on the big days
Current scene at Tequendama hotel to welcome the CIDH commision
Etse pueblo no se rinde carajo
🔊⬆️
Sebastián, a young protester on why he's here (Español)
Things getting real tense
People NOT happy w the police to say the least
Yelling "murderers" at the cops blocking the entrance to the hotel
Rain stopped. We got more people rolling in from other marches
Some shots of the crowd
The skinny from your man on the ground
La guardia campesina has arrived from Catatumbo. That's a hella violent conflict zone near the Venezuelan border
10 minute break to find some aspirin. I'm skipping some much needs dental surgery to be here today 🤕
"A Colombia without ESMAD" (the infamous riot cops who have been responsible for 20 of 60 odd deaths since protests began over a month ago
La guardia campesina has formed a human shield between protesters and police
The current scene
Protesters read, one by one, the names of the 71 who have died since protests began #ParoNacional9J
Watch the fuck out guys, even the cows are pissed
Taking a break to go home, swap memory cards and charge cameras. I will be back for night protests after I figure out where they're concentrated. Thread paused but not over!
Gassing people is hard work. Sometimes you gotta bring snacks for the boys after they repress the pueblo
Ok we're back! I'm headed to Monumento de los héroes to check out the vibe after sunset. If i hear there are demos at Portal Resistencia I might head down there after as well
Ok i hear ESMAD is coming down hard on the Minga near the airport. I'm looking for a cab now to get there
So the Misak left after being gassed. I heard they were headed down 26 from human rights workers. We're trying to follow In a can
I dunno guys. Hahaha. I should have stayed at heroes i think. We followed 26 all the way to Centro and I don't see anything. I think the rain may have scared people off
Welp. Sometimes it happens. I'ma get a beer and call this. Sorry i missed the ESMAD confrontation. These things are unpredictable. But still, hell of a day.
Thanks all, as always for reading if you got this far. Y salud!
🇨🇴❤️✊
/END
I lied! One last photo at the hotel
Jose Ambulla, killed by ESMAD. His portrait posted here in the foreground. Colombian police in the background
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Yesterday morning, Juan Guaidó arrived to Bogotá uninvited, ahead of a Venezuelan opposition conference organized by 🇨🇴 President Gustavo Petro
Now he is in Miami after being "expelled" according to Colombia's Foreign Ministry
What happened in between is a little confusing:🧵
Yesterday morning, Guaidó announced his presence in Colombia. He crossed the border informally "arriving the way millions have, on foot" according to his statement
Bloomberg reported Petro has known about the trip for 2 weeks according to admin sources
The Colombian government, at least publicly, was les than thrilled. The Foreign Ministry said he would not be able to attend to the conference, and criticized him for entering the country informally
The Colombian governnent tried this for decades. Cocaine production continúes to hit record highs still every year
You cant bomb your way out of production
Because new actors just immediately fill the hole. And those new actors, whose friends, family and loved ones you killed, will hate you, making recruitment for armed groups easier
Problem #3
The "kingpin theory", that killing leasership ends organizations as well is flawed
🧵 on the "armed strike" happening in Colombia. I wanted to do an explainer for those abroad to explain the context
Right wing narco group AGC (Gaitan Self Defense forces of Colombia) have prohibited movement and economic activity in most of the northwest of the country (1)
First, "armed strikes" by armed groups here happen a lot, as do "social cleansings" where AGs exile or murder "undesirables": usually that means homeless people, LGBT, street criminals etc etc
Usually the larger Colombian populace doesnt care much cause those zones are poor (2)
This armed strike however is happening near but outside of, Medellín, not just ana area relative security and an economic engine, but also the main power center of Colombia's ruling party, led by Álvaro, who has always had paramilitary contacts (3) nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/…
Anyone who thinks forced authentification is a good idea, or that shadow banning anonymous accounts will improve the quality of our information sphere, has never lived, worked, stepped outside the hotel lobby of an authoritarian state
In Colombia for example, which prob isnt high on the list of authoritarian countries most English speakers immediately think of, data harvested from social media led directly to arrrests of protesters, many *months* later, some of whom now face "terrorism" charges
Just last month, an old lady was arrested in Venezuela for making a video where she made fun of Venezuelan politicians by cooking arepas. No thats not a joke
Alright! Let's get nerdy about the economic effects migrants have on their destination countries! And address some common misunderstandings with data from recent real world examples
THREAD:
Let's start with one of the most common false claims globally- "Immigrants will take our jobs, lower our wages and especially hurt the poor"
To explain why this claim is false, we need to first explain a bit what immigrants do when they arrive to destination countries
We have two real-world examples to study this! Colombia, which absorbed more than 1.7 million Venezuelan migrants between 2015 and 2020
And decades of data from the US, which has seen a rise in migration in recent years.