Joshua Collins Profile picture
Jun 9, 2021 36 tweets 11 min read Read on X
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 Image
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" ImageImage
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 Image
Ladycop

My god she's so young Image
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" Image
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 ImageImageImageImage
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 Image
10 minute break to find some aspirin. I'm skipping some much needs dental surgery to be here today 🤕

Brb!
Whole lot of vandals and terrorists here 🤭
This guy seems chill Image
La Esperanza #ParoNacional9J Image
"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 Image
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 Image
Watch the fuck out guys, even the cows are pissed Image
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!
Resistencia carajo

#ParoNacional9J Image
Gassing people is hard work. Sometimes you gotta bring snacks for the boys after they repress the pueblo Image
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
Héroes!
#ParoNacional9J
It's raining again. Hahahah. But..

Chil scene ImageImageImageImage
The rain makes for amazing shots tho Image
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 Image
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 Image

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More from @InvisiblesMuros

Apr 25, 2023
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:🧵 Image
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

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Feb 23, 2023
New "The US military should invade México because Fentanyl" take just dropped in the Republican primaries

I dont even know where to start with the millions of problems with this idea. I doubt Mr Ramaswamy has thought this through

Lets start tho: 🧵
1) So....declare war on México?

Yeah dude. No. Just no

Problem #2

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
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May 7, 2022
🧵 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/…
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May 6, 2022
Gunmen opened fire in the main plaza of San Roque, Antioquia to announce the begining of the 'Paro Armado'

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Town under lockdown and steeets deserted as AGC imposes the armed strike
Scene currently downtown:
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Apr 26, 2022
It's time again for my quarterly reminder:

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
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Feb 19, 2022
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.
Read 22 tweets

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