Wednesday, November 20th
As I stood in an aisle of Jumbo, the local equivalent of a Walmart Supercenter, I realized the shelves looked unusually bare. Around me, the store was a flurry of activity and crowded for a Wednesday night at 6. School was canceled tomorrow. Families were stocking up on supplies- I saw more than one mom with an overstuffed cart of food. As I wound my way towards the checkout, a thick feeling of preparation and anxiety clouded the air. The energy was almost identical to that of a sleepy New England town preparing for a big Nor Easter snowstorm. Except in Cali, Colombia, we weren't preparing for a storm; we were preparing for a Nationwide protest of the right-wing government and Colombia's President, Ivan Duque. El Paro Nacional del 21 de Noviembre de 2019.
Thursday, November 21st
On Thursday morning, Conor and I awoke to solid silence. The usual sounds of horns honking and traffic whooshing by our apartment compound were absent. We shrugged and devoted ourselves to making a "fancy" breakfast because, quite frankly, there was nothing else to do. We had been told by our school to stay inside and to "take the utmost caution".
After our banana pancakes, I suggested we take the elevator up to the 11th floor to see if we could glimpse anything happening in the road. When the elevator doors opened, we had a sweeping view of the surrounding streets and mountains. "No way! Look!" I pointed to the parking lot of Jardin Plaza, our giant local mall. The blacktop, usually invisible due to all the cars and motos crammed onto the lot, was completely exposed. Scanning further, I realized the public bussing station was also deserted. Not a single pedestrian was in sight. Not only had the schools canceled, but businesses had shut down too.
Meanwhile, only a few streets away, our friends, Hannah and Matt, awoke to a completely different experience. Across the street from their apartment, hundreds of police officers in full riot gear spilled out of the police station and began to use their street as a staging area. When Hannah peered out from her balcony and saw so many armed officers, she was terrified. She and Matt quickly calculated which room of their apartment would be safest if a confrontation between the police and protestors escalated. Like us, they planned to stay in, but realized they would have venture outside at some point to take their dog to the bathroom.
As the hours crawled on, helicopters flew overhead and some of our teacher friends posted updates from the marches around the city. In their photos, giant Colombian flags waved proudly and pops of bold red, blue, and yellow speckled massive crowds. Indigenous men and women carried smoking vessels and danced down the street instead of marching. Young and old waved homemade posters that denounced the corrupt government. Others called for better protection of women, social leaders, and indigenous peoples, for better public university options, highlighted violations of human rights and the breach of the Peace Agreement. The optics reminded me of the Women's March I attended back in Hartford. Natalie and Jess, two friends who attended the Colombian protest, told me by participating in the march they felt the most connected and alive since moving here. Jess said for her, this protest was much more vibrant and lasted WAY longer than the Women’s March she attended in San Francisco. To her, the parts that felt distinctly Latin American were the choreographed dances, papabombas, whistles, and colored smoke. Come afternoon most people returned to their homes, proud of having stood up for their beliefs and values.
The Cause
So what exactly was being protested? In short, a lot of things. It all began a national demonstration to voice concerns about possible changes to the minimum wage, pension, and tax reforms, and the privatization of state companies. However, in the weeks leading up to the protest, the mission grew. The purpose began to transcend the original concerns of the labor unions and took on a larger goal- to express discontent with Ivan Duque, Colombia's president, and the right-wing government as a whole. According to TIME, "tensions deepened in recent weeks after a government-led airstrike against a camp of dissident FARC rebels reportedly killed at least eight children in August. The airstrike led to the resignation of Duque’s defense minister, Guillermo Botero, on Nov. 6." The public's growing concerns about security, corruption, and economic inequality spurred this protest to be the largest public demonstration in recent Colombian history, with hundreds of thousands of people joining nationwide.
Safety Concerns
The protest was largely peaceful on Thursday morning and afternoon, but unfortunately, fringe groups began to incite violence as the afternoon turned to dusk. The local Cali news accounts I follow on social media began to post videos of individuals throwing rocks at police, groups smashing windows of malls and others spraying graffiti on public transit stations. As clashes between riot police and some protestors were reported, the mayor of Cali called for a city-wide curfew, starting at 7 pm. Conor and I raised our eyebrows, and I began to feel fear creep in. I comforted myself with the knowledge that inciting a curfew after a protest is not unprecedented. In the United States, during the 2015 protests over the death of Freddie Gray, the city of Baltimore instituted a week-long curfew of 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. This curfew was also called for after violent riots and looting occurred in conjunction with the peaceful demonstration. Okay, if curfew happens in the U.S. after protests, I had nothing to worry about, right? As I peered out the window Thursday night, Conor laughed at my sudden anxiety. However, I could only muster feeble comebacks to his teasing.
We soon received the email we suspected was coming. School was canceled again:
Friday, November 22nd
"Dear Bolivar Community Members,
Taking into account the curfew declared by the Mayor of Santiago de Cali following the disturbances in the development of the National strike today, we have decided to cancel all academic and administrative activities of Colegio Bolivar for tomorrow Friday, November 22."
Texts began to flood in from our friends across the city. Our friend Niki, sent a video of a bunch of men running around her complex wielding bats and broomsticks. Originally, she thought these men had hopped her fence and used the protest as an opportunity for looting and vandalism. However, her fiance, Diego, went down to investigate (so brave!) and figured out these men lived in their apartment complex and were actually arming themselves in case of a break-in by the looters. Similar scenes occurred across the city. A fellow 10th-grade teacher texted to check in on us Friday morning and reported something similar happened in his complex on Thursday night:
"Hope you are well and looking after yourselves. Last night it was like a mixture between the Zombie Apocalypse and the Purge. The residents of our Conjunto were walking around with an amazing variety of arms, there were: rolling pins, pans, labels, speaker stands, baseball bats, weight lifting barbells, machetes, knives, tire wrenches, mops, brooms, curtain poles, bits of wooden planks, 2x4, improvised spears, walking sticks, squash racquets, things you beat maize with, stilts, dogs, there was even a Bible preacher with a microphone giving out leaflets and talking of the apocalypse. Seriously weird, amusing and serious at the same time. Listening to people was incredibly interesting."
Whether to see this scene as fearful or funny is up for debate. However, the idea that so many citizens felt compelled to arm themselves in case of the perceived "other" coming to attack certainly provides a glimpse into the national psyche of Colombia. Considering the country's violent and turbulent history, especially in the 90s, I do not blame anyone for taking precautions. Panic began to spread, and many people sent messages warning that looters were running around the city. Shots were heard. Many thought it was the looters. However, the shots heard in many neighborhoods were created by people to scare "the incoming looters" and defend themselves. These defense mechanisms had a ripple effect of creating even more fear. There are many memes now circulating around making fun of this cycle, though at the time the feeling was real. People were terrified.
As the sunset and darkness crept in over the city, I began to hear a crowd banging pots and pans and the uneasiness I felt grew. Unknown to me, banging on pots and pans is a traditional form of protest in Latin America, originated in Chile and Argentina, called “cacerolazo.” As I settled into bed I heard the intense metal clanging echoing long into the dark night.
Fear and Politics
I remember the passion I felt when I attended the protest at the Bradley International Airport in Hartford after Trump enacted the immigration ban. I held a giant sign and chanted loudly with my fellow teacher friends. As part of that movement, I felt empowered and positive. This past week in Colombia, as I experienced a protest from the outside looking in, I tried my best to keep that same mindset. I stayed updated, remained calm, and remembered fear is a tool used in politics to warp perceptions and reach political gains.
Some have claimed that the Colombian government staged many of the looting occurrences as a way to discredit the protestors and what they stood for. True or not, I would hate for the actions of a small group of fringe people to overshadow the passion and love the protestors in Colombia showed by standing up for the worthy causes they champion.
Yesterday, an 18-year-old student, Dilan Cruz, died due to complications suffered from a “nonconventional projectile” launched by the ESMAD (Escuadrón Móvil Antidisturbios de la Policía). He sustained this injury while participating in the march in Bogotá. His death has enraged people across the nation.
The November 21st protests were certainly monumental for Colombia, as they captured both national and international attention, and I am curious to see what impact they will have on the country moving forward.
November Favorites:
-celebrating Thanksgiving early at Colegio Bolivar style with a staff-wide turkey dinner
-traveling with a group of 7 friends to Cartagena for the Thanksgiving holiday where we enjoyed the beautiful islands and a stunning view of the city from the pool on top of our hostel, Selina
-dining at Interno, a restaurant in Cartagena which is staffed fully by incarcerated women and aims to promote reconciliation and resocialization between the public and the prison population
-hosting a hot coco and Christmas movie viewing party for friends, keeping up with the Colombian spirit of preparing for Christmas VERY early
-running a 6k nighttime Fun Run around San Antonio with fellow teachers...I ran my best time!
-traveling to a local historic homestead with 10th-grade students for a field trip
-Christmas shopping for our families at our favorite artisan shops
-planting Sweet Potatoes in the Bolivar Garden with our friend, and Bolivar's Chemistry teacher, Woj
-Seeing Frozen 2 in 4D...yes we went opening weekend