Bogota under curfew as protests spread to Colombia

Bloomberg

Bogota was placed under curfew for the first time in decades as Colombia became the latest Andean nation to be convulsed by violent anti-government protests.
The mayor’s office instituted a city-wide curfew, as demonstrators clashed with security forces a day after a nationwide strike. Masked youths fought with police, and there were outbreaks of looting and vandalism in many parts of the city.
Earlier, police fired tear gas to disperse crowds gathered outside congress for a second day as protest organisers called on people to keep up pressure on the nation’s unpopular president Ivan Duque.
As the start of the curfew approached residents in many neighbourhoods banged pots and pans, a common form protest in Latin America.
Organisers are seeking to keep pressure on Duque, while the government has sought to quell the protests. The demonstrations have been motivated by a range of issues, including the government’s education and labour policies, unsolved murders of social leaders and corruption. Unions said they’d convene another national demonstration on Monday.
The curfew is the first in the capital since 1977, according to Jorge Restrepo, director of CERAC, a Bogota-based research institution that monitors the nation’s civil conflict.
Elsewhere in the Andes, huge anti-government protests forced the governments of Ecuador and Chile to roll back austerity measures, while in Bolivia weeks of demonstrations helped force president Evo Morales to step down.
In a national address, Duque said he would start a national dialogue next week. This is unlikely to be enough to calm the situation, said Claudia Navas, an analyst at the Control Risks consultancy in Bogota.
“Considering how Duque is handling it, this may extend for some more days,” Navas said.
Thieves hijacked a city bus and used it to batter down the doors of a shuttered shop in the south of Bogota, according to footage shown by Bogota-based newspaper El Espectador.
More than quarter of a million Colombians took part in the nation’s biggest protests in years. The demonstrations started out peacefully, but degenerated into violence as protesters clashed with armoured anti-riot units, broke into businesses, and blocked roads. Three protesters died in the Valle del Cauca department, and at least 170 police and civilians were injured, the defense ministry said.