The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has posted on social media:
“Today, 05/22/2026, we accompany @Nomadesc [the Association for Research and Social Action] at the Public Popular Hearing in Siloé, Cali, five years of impunity that families and organizations continue to denounce in the face of the violent persecution suffered by young people during the Social Outbreak of 2021.
Social organizations report 64 people killed, in addition to multiple persecutions and aggressions aimed at punishing the exercise of social protest and the work of relatives in the search of memory, truth and justice; facts that continue to this day.”
Nomadesc is continuing to mark the 5th anniversary of the national strike and social uprising that began on April 28, 2021, as well as the preceding protests that began on November 21, 2019.
Amnesty International has summarized: “Throughout the 2021 National Strike, Colombia witnessed mass demonstrations across the country. The protests made visible the historical claims of marginalized populations in the country. Inequality, racism, violence and the consequences of the internal armed conflict were key structural causes of the social explosion. …Instead of listening to the demands of the thousands of people who demonstrated, the government of Iván Duque responded with repression and violence to discourage the peaceful protests and ultimately to punish those who were demanding change in the country.”
We highlight again the solidarity expressed by the labour movement in Canada with the national strike in Colombia:
Click on the hyperlinks to see statements from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), Unifor, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the United Steelworkers (USW), the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), the Union of Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the British Colombia General Employees Union (BCGEU) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Peace Brigades International has accompanied Nomadesc since 2011, and its president Berenice Celeita since 1999.
We continue to follow this.
