Photo by Nomadesc.
The Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (Credhos) has posted on social media: “We are mobilizing this October 14th! …We are mobilizing against: The dismantling of the minimum wage. The criminalization of social protest. The privatization of public education. Discrimination, stigmatization, and structural violence. The privatization of Ecopetrol and fracking.”
This afternoon, CREDHOS posted on Facebook: “From CREDHOS we participated and supported the mobilization of October 14, being part of the Human Rights Commission of the Barrancabermeja Strike Committee. We reaffirm our commitment to defending the social protest and demanding guarantees for those who exercise this right in a peaceful manner, without criminalization or stigmatization.”
The Association for Social Research and Action (Nomadesc) also posted on social media: “Today, October 14, 2026, thousands of residents of Cali took to the streets to participate in massive demonstrations. Workers, union members, young people, and adults alike gathered to express their dissatisfaction with the decisions and measures taken by the government led by Abelardo de la Espriella. During the protests, demonstrators voiced concern over government policies that they believe threaten rights won through decades of social, labor, and grassroots struggles.”
And the Humanitarian Action Corporation for Coexistence and Peace in Northeast Antioquia (Cahucopana) posted: “Cahucopana is in Bogotá! A delegation of women from #AMUSUNASB [the Association of Women in Overcoming of Northeastern Antioquia and Southern Bolívar], along with peasant farmers and agro-miners from #AMATNASB [the Ancestral and Traditional Agro-Mining Association of Northeast Antioquia and South Bolívar] and #CAHUCOPANA, is currently in Bogotá participating in the National Mobilization for Life, Territory, and the Rights of the People.”
All three organizations are accompanied by Peace Brigades International.
The Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation (FNEB) also posted on social media: “Our quest is also a form of resistance. This October 14, we continue to raise our voices for those who need us and demand truth and justice. From the camp and deployment in front of the Prosecutor’s Office bunker, the women searchers of ASOMADCA [the Association of Mothers and Women Searchers of Cartago, Valle] and the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation reaffirm that we will not stop fighting until we find our loved ones. Because memory walks, the search continues and hope endures!”
Union mobilization
Also mobilizing on October 14 were unions including the Central Union of Workers (CUT), the Confederation of Workers of Colombia (CTC), the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) and the Colombian Federation of Educators (Fecode).
The Associated Press reports: “Unions, students and sectors of the opposition to the government of conservative Abelardo de la Espriella mobilized Wednesday through the streets of Bogota and other Colombian cities to express their discontent with the government and its social policies, which they consider regressive.”
“The march was also called by some unions, including the teachers’ union, against measures by De la Espriella that ‘modify decrees to make teaching work more precarious, privatize education and limit the right to protest,’ the Central Union of Workers said in a statement the day before.”
Excelsior adds: “On this day, in addition, the indigenous communities protest against a project to regulate the indigenous guard, a civilian entity for the defense of territories operating in the regions most affected by the armed conflict.”
Decree 1525, more than 4,000 riot police
The AP article highlights that the day before the protest, de la Espriella “published a decree that modifies the protocol for the use of force by the police during the protests. The new rule allows police intervention without necessarily exhausting dialogue, according to the decree. … ‘There are measures like the decree issued yesterday that are authoritarian,’ Percy Oyola, president of the General Confederation of Labor who was protesting in downtown Bogota, told The Associated Press.”
Agence France-Presse also explains: “The new decree modifies another executive order from 2021 that privileged dialogue and mediation before the public forces acted in the event of violent demonstrations.”
And Infobae reports: “According to the statement issued by [the Foundation for Press Freedom (Flip)], the decree does not establish explicit guarantees to guarantee the protection of the press during the journalistic coverage of the marches. ‘The law authorizes immediate interventions in the face of certain acts of violence and allows the omission of previous stages of dialogue and mediation without setting sufficient operational guarantees so that these actions do not end in aggressions against journalists or in restrictions on their work,’ Flip said.”
The day before the protest, The City Paper Bogota reported: “More than 4,000 members of the National police’s Anti-riot Squad – ESMAD – are expected to be deployed on Bogotá’s streets on Wednesday…”
The Committee for Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP) posted on social media: “October 14, 2026. We are alert about the intervention of the Dialogue and Order Maintenance Unit (UNDMO) during the social protest day that is taking place in Ibagué. We demand that the National Police respect and guarantee the right to social protest, refrain from arbitrary or disproportionate use of force and protect the life and integrity of protesters. In videos spread on social networks it is observed that the police have apprehended protesters. We demand that you respect your life and personal integrity and fully guarantee your rights.”
We continue to follow this.
Additional reading: Why are the marches TODAY, October 14 in Colombia? Reasons for the National Strike (Caracol, October 14, 2026).
